Monday could be doomsday for the Winnipeg Jets. Even while the team was keeping its playoff hopes alive late Thursday by stunning the Detroit Red Wings, the franchise was being dealt what could be a death blow.

Manitoba Entertainment Complex Inc., the group that has proposed to buy the struggling franchise and help build a new arena, says the National Hockey League has imposed new conditions that make it improbable the deal will get done by midnight Monday, when the group’s option to buy the franchise expires.

If MEC does not complete the purchase, the team almost certainly will be sold to outside interests and moved out of Winnipeg. Atlanta is considered the front-runner for the team, with Minneapolis-St. Paul also in the picture.

These two conditions are the most serious sticking points:

The new owners would not be allowed to move the team until they have lost at least $25 million after the new arena is opened in 1997.

The new owners will not be allowed to use more than half the franchise value as collateral for a loan on the new arena. The franchise is valued at $50 million (Canadian) and MEC had intended to borrow $44 million toward arena construction, using the franchise as collateral.