DALLAS — It’s been said everything is bigger in Texas. From the size of the sprawling state to ten-gallon hats and heaping portions of world-famous barbecue served up at local establishments, there’s no shortage of examples to be found.

You can now throw early-April hockey games into the mix. Thursday’s showdown at dusk between the Winnipeg Jets and Dallas Stars is El Grande, with significant playoff implications on the line.

“No better time to get ourselves a road win,” Jets coach Scott Arniel said Wednesday.

Fred Greenslade / THE CANADIAN PRESS files Rasmus Kupari celebrates after scoring on Dallas Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger during the Jets 4-1 home-ice victory over the Stars in November.

Here’s everything you need to know to get you ready for Winnipeg’s game of the year, at least so far. Warning: There’s going to be a little bit of math involved.

The 53-21-4 Jets enter play with a four-point lead over the 50-22-6 Stars for top spot in the Central Division and Western Conference. Both teams have four games remaining.

Winnipeg’s magic number to clinch the No. 1 seed is five points. As in, any combination of ones they gain and/or ones Dallas loses. You’ve likely heard the term “four-pointer” thrown out for a divisional clash, and that’s exactly what this is.

By the time the final buzzer sounds inside American Airlines Center, the Jets could be six points (with a regulation win), five points (with a shootout/overtime win), three points (with a shootout/overtime loss) or two points (with a regulation loss) points ahead of the Stars heading into their final three games.

Winnipeg’s remaining contests are at Chicago on Saturday and then home against Edmonton on Sunday and Anaheim on Wednesday. Dallas hosts Utah on Saturday, then hits the road for its final two in Detroit on Monday and Nashville on Wednesday.

Should the clubs be tied at the end of their 82-game regular-season marathon next Wednesday, the first tiebreaker is regulation wins. The Jets currently have a 42-41 advantage in that department. If that were to be even, the second tiebreak is regulation and overtime wins, which the Jets lead 52-48.

The best-case scenario for Winnipeg is a clean victory over Dallas which would guarantee they’d finish no worse than tied in the final standings. The Stars would then have to win their final three games in regulation while the Jets would have to lose their remaining trio, also in regulation, for Dallas to grab the tiebreak by a 44-43 advantage.

We won’t fry your brain with all the other potential scenarios other than to serve up a reminder as long as the Jets can find a way to get five points over their final four games — such as going 2-1-1 or 1-0-3 — then it doesn’t matter one lick what the Stars do in theirs. Gain less than five points on their own and Dallas would need to leave some on the table along the way.

The Jets should be a confident group following Monday’s impressive 3-1 victory over the St. Louis Blues which was much more dominant than the final score would indicate. The Stars, meanwhile, could be reeling following a historic collapse on Tuesday against the Vancouver Canucks in which a 5-2 lead with 60 seconds left to play ended in a 6-5 overtime loss.

“At the end of the day, it’s a cliche, but it’s us. It’s us going into Dallas. Whatever happened (Tuesday) night, we still have to win that hockey game,” said Arniel.

Dallas has now gone winless in its last three games (0-1-2) following a run of 8-0-2.

“We’ve got some help on the out -of-town scoreboard, for sure,” said Jets captain Adam Lowry. “But we’ve been talking about it all year, we take care of our games and how we play, and kind of the results will follow themselves. And I think if we do that, we’ll put ourselves in a great spot.”

This is the fourth and final regular-season meeting, with the home teams winning all three so far. The Jets stood tall on Nov. 9 (4-1) and March 14 (4-1) inside Canada Life Centre, while the Stars had the advantage on Dec. 1 (3-1) in their barn.

Winnipeg could get a boost with forward Nikolaj Ehlers and defenceman Neal Pionk being game-time decisions to return to the lineup from their respective lower-body injuries. Ehlers has missed the last two outings while Pionk has been out for a dozen. Forward Gabe Vilardi will miss an eighth game in a row with an upper-body issue. Dallas is without a couple key players in defenceman Miro Heiskanen and veteran centre Tyler Seguin.

“A real critical game for us against one of the best teams in the league in the Stars. It’s another game that should be easy to get up for,” said Lowry.

“We’re excited. It’s gonna be playoff style. They’re a team that’s really ramping up near the end too, and we’re all fighting for positions, so it’ll be important when you get off to a similar start to last game. I know we didn’t get rewarded with any goals in the first period, but you know that style of play is really conducive to winning.”

The Jets are 17-7-0 so far against the Central Division this year while the Stars have gone 15-5-3. Winnipeg will be seeking its 25th road victory of the year, which would be tops in the NHL. Goaltender Connor Hellebuyck is also looking for his 45th victory in net, which would break his franchise record that he tied Monday night. Other potential milestones in play include Mark Scheifele needing one more point to set a regular-season high and Ehlers and Kyle Connor need two points to establish new offensive benchmarks.

Why is finishing first is so important? Aside from the fact it would be the first division title in Jets history it would also mean avoiding Colorado in the first round of the playoffs. The surging Avalanche might just be the most dangerous third-place team in recent NHL history — considering the fact they’re fifth-overall in the league with 100 points.

They’re also on the cusp of getting a massive emotional boost with captain Gabe Landeskog, who hasn’t played a game in three years, on the verge of an incredible return from injury. He was assigned to their American Hockey League team on Wednesday to ramp up his conditioning.

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There’s no such thing as an easy post-season matchup but finishing first and playing the second wild-card team — likely to be one of the St. Louis Blues, Minnesota Wild or Calgary Flames — would appear to be the less treacherous path at this point.

Not that the Jets seem particularly worried about that right now.

“There’s a belief in this room that when we play as well as we can, we can beat anyone on any night,” said Lowry.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

X and Bluesky: @mikemcintyrewpg

Mike McIntyre Reporter

Mike McIntyre is a sports reporter whose primary role is covering the Winnipeg Jets. After graduating from the Creative Communications program at Red River College in 1995, he spent two years gaining experience at the Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in 1997, where he served on the crime and justice beat until 2016. Read more about Mike.

Every piece of reporting Mike produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.