Jets' Scheifele has goal and crucial penalty in Game 6 at Dallas after his father's unexpected death

DALLAS (AP) — Winnipeg top center Mark Scheifele scored a goal in the Jets' must-win Game 6 of their second-round playoff series at Dallas on Saturday night, hours after the unexpected death of his father.

But he also had the penalty that set up the Stars' power-play goal in overtime of a 2-1 loss that knocked the top-ranked Jets out of the playoffs.

Jets captain Adam Lowry went and got Scheifele out of the box when the game ended, and was clearly emotional afterward talking about it.

“We’re a family. Just to let him know that we’re there for him. It’s just an awful day for him,” Lowry said. "You want to give him the strength, you want to get that kill so bad. We just couldn’t do it.”

During the handshake line afterward, Scheifele hugged and talked to just about everyone, with Stars players clearly offering their support to him in a heartwarming moment.

“For him to go through what he had to go through, and perform the way he did, so proud of him. And his dad would be so proud of him. He wanted to win so bad,” coach Scott Arinel said. “The circumstances, so, so tough. Being in a situation like that, I couldn’t imagine it. The pro that he is, the leader that he is, the year that he had with us, his dad and his family would be very proud of him.”

Scheifele scored his fifth goal of the playoffs 5 1/2 minutes into the second period to give the Jets a 1-0 lead. He scored on a short snap shot from just outside the crease after gathering the rebound of a shot by Kyle Conner.

It was tied at 1 when Sam Steel, who had already scored for Dallas, was on a break. Scheifele lunged forward desperately trying to make a play when he tripped up the forward at the blue line with 14.8 seconds in regulation. Scheifele and the Jets avoided a penalty shot on the play, but ended up losing on the power play when Thomas Harley scored 1:33 into overtime to end Winnipeg's season.

“There’s just so many emotions surrounding it," Lowry said. “Obviously, with Scheif’s dad passing away, you want to be there, you want to support him, you want to be a good friend, a good teammate. And then you have your season come to an end where ultimately fell short of the goal. You worked so hard all year. ... It's just a lot.”

Scheifele was the last Jets player to leave the ice following pregame warmups, and during at least part of the singing of “O Canada,” he had his head bowed and eyes closed. He took the opening faceoff against Roope Hintz.

“The thing about Mr. Scheifele is he’s part of our family. He’s part of the Jets family. He goes back to 2011 when Mark was first drafted here,” Arniel said before the game. “We have a lot of players that came in around the time that are still here that he’s been a big part of their life, along with their family. So it’s certainly, obviously devastating for Mark, but also for a lot of guys on this team.”

There was no immediate word on the cause of Brad Scheifele’s death.

The 32-year-old Mark Schiefele finished with 11 points (five goals, six assists) while playing in 11 of the Jets’ 13 games this postseason. He missed Games 6 and 7 of the first-round series against St. Louis with an undisclosed injury after taking a pair of big hits early in Game 5 of that series. He had 87 points (39 goals and 48 assists) in the 82 regular-season games.

AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

Winnipeg Jets' Mark Scheifele shouts in the direction of an official after being issued a penalty for tripping in the third period of Game 6 of a second-round NHL hockey playoff series against the Dallas Stars in Dallas, Saturday, May 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Gareth Patterson)

Winnipeg Jets' Gabriel Vilardi (13), Kyle Connor, left rear, Mark Scheifele, center rear, Neal Pionk (4) and Dylan Samberg, right, celebrate after Scheifele scored against the Dallas Stars in the second period of Game 6 of a second-round NHL hockey playoff series in Dallas, Saturday, May 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Gareth Patterson)

Winnipeg Jets' Mark Scheifele (55) talks to referee Dan O'Rourke (9) after Scheifele was issed a tripping penalty in the third period of Game 6 of a second-round NHL hockey playoff series against the Dallas Stars in Dallas, Saturday, May 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Gareth Patterson)

Dallas Stars' Sam Steel (18) is tripped by Winnipeg Jets' Mark Scheifele as Steel chases after the puck in the third period of Game 6 of a second-round NHL hockey playoff series in Dallas, Saturday, May 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Gareth Patterson)

Dallas Stars center Sam Steel (18) is tripped by Winnipeg Jets' Mark Scheifele, right rear, on an attack in the third period of Game 6 of a second-round NHL hockey playoff series in Dallas, Saturday, May 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Gareth Patterson)

Winnipeg Jets center Mark Scheifele waits on a face-off against the Dallas Stars in the second period of Game 6 of a second-round NHL hockey playoff series in Dallas, Saturday, May 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Gareth Patterson)

Winnipeg Jets center Mark Scheifele warms up before Game 6 of a second-round NHL hockey playoff series against the Dallas Stars in Dallas, Saturday, May 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Gareth Patterson)

Winnipeg Jets' Cole Perfetti (91) and Mark Scheifele, right, talk during warmups before first Game 6 of a second-round NHL hockey playoff series against the Dallas Stars in Dallas, Saturday, May 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Gareth Patterson)

Winnipeg Jets center Mark Scheifele warms up before Game 6 of a second-round NHL hockey playoff series against the Dallas Stars in Dallas, Saturday, May 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Gareth Patterson)

Winnipeg Jets' Nikolaj Ehlers (27) celebrates after his goal against the Dallas Stars with Mark Scheifele (55), Haydn Fleury (24) and Dylan Demelo (2) during the first period of Game 2 of a second-round NHL hockey playoff series in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Friday, May 9, 2025. (Fred Greenslade/The Canadian Press via AP)

Winnipeg Jets center Mark Scheifele moves to the puck in the first period of Game 4 of a second-round NHL hockey playoff series against the Dallas Stars in Dallas, Tuesday, May 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Gareth Patterson)

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Union Pacific hopes regulators will be convinced this time that its $85 billion acquisition of Norfolk Southern that it detailed for the second time Thursday will be good for the country.

The U.S. Surface Transportation Board rejected Union Pacific's initial application because regulators wanted more details about how the deal would affect the competitive balance between the five remaining major freight railroads and the impact on customers.

Union Pacific CEO Jim Vena said the new application makes an even stronger case for the benefits of the merger that he believes would shave a day or two off the delivery time for many shipments because they would no longer have to be handed off between two railroads in the middle of the country. The Omaha, Nebraska-based railroad projects that the merger could lead to shifting 2.1 million truckloads off the highway onto trains.

Vena said CSX and BNSF are already improving their operations to ensure they can compete ,and shippers will benefit from that if the deal is approved. Plus, he pointed out that since BNSF is owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway it has the financial resources to do whatever is needed because Berkshire is sitting on nearly $400 billion cash.

“The first few years after this, it’s gonna be like one of those old 15-round boxing fights. Prices are gonna be used, the service is going to be used, everything. And I think the customer’s going to be the winner in all this while we knock down, drag it out, to see who can win and grow their market share,” Vena said.

But the STB established a high bar for major railroad mergers like this one around the turn of the century after past rail mergers snarled freight and led to prolonged disruptions while two railroads worked to integrate their networks. Now Union Pacific has to demonstrate that this deal will enhance competition.

Vena said he's confident the railroads can avoid the integration problems of past mergers because they will take it slow while listening to a new board of customers about the impact. Plus this would be a combination of two successful railroads instead of many deals of the past where one thriving railroad took over another nearly bankrupt one in disrepair.

The deal includes a provision that if the STB requires more than $750 million in concessions Union Pacific can consider walking away, but it won't automatically doom the deal, the railroads disclosed Thursday as they submitted a copy of their merger agreement. Norfolk Southern would be entitled to a $2.5 billion breakup fee if the deal falls apart.

Currently, Norfolk Southern and CSX serve the eastern U.S. while Union Pacific and BNSF serve the west, and the two major Canadian rails compete where they can with their tracks crossing Canada and extending into the United States and Mexico.

A merged Union Pacific would likely control nearly 40% of the nation’s freight, but the railroad said that currently BNSF delivers that much of the nation's freight. So the railroads said the deal would shift which railroad dominates the market but wouldn't dramatically change the competitive balance.

But competitors BNSF and CPKC railroads joined a new coalition Wednesday to highlight concerns that the deal could hurt shippers and eventually consumers if it leads to higher rates for companies that have few options besides rail to get their raw materials and deliver their products. The coalition also includes trade groups for chemical and agricultural shippers and the unions that represent engineers and track maintenance workers.

“This did not begin with a customer asking for a UP-NS merger to happen,” BNSF CEO Katie Farmer said. “It’s driven by Wall Street on the promise of a big shareholder payout. It will eliminate competition, raise costs for consumers, and destabilize the supply chain that powers the American economy.”

But the biggest rail union and hundreds of shippers have backed the deal that would cut the number of major freight railroads across America down to five.

Union Pacific has promised that every union employee who has a job with either railroad at the time of the merger will have a job for life although the workforce could still shrink through attrition if the number of shipments slows down. But UP sounded an optimistic note Thursday and predicted that more than 1,200 new jobs will be created by the third year after the deal to handle the increased freight.

Previously, the railroads predicted 900 new jobs. But the new traffic data the railroads analyzed from all the major freight railroads convinced executives that more job growth is likely.

If the STB accepts this new application, regulators will likely spend more than a year analyzing every aspect of the deal.

.

FILE - Union Pacific CEO Jim Vena talks in front of a locomotive simulator used to train engineers at the company's headquarters in Omaha, Neb., Dec. 15, 2023. (AP Photo/Josh Funk, File)

FILE - A Norfolk Southern freight train rolls past the U.S. Steel's Clairton Coke Works, in Clairton, Pa., Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)

FILE - A Union Pacific worker walks between two locomotives that are being serviced in a railyard in Council Bluffs, Iowa, on Dec. 15, 2023. (AP Photo/Josh Funk, File)