ST. LOUIS – This is one of those games the St. Louis Blues are going to look back on later in the season and wished they had back.
Because for once, they had the chance to knock off the team that’s been a thorn in their side the past three seasons and allowed the Winnipeg Jets to get them yet again.
The second period doomed the Blues when the Jets scored three times in a 3-2 win against the Blues at Enterprise Center on Tuesday.
The Blues (4-3-0) played a solid first and third periods, but they tended to be their own worst enemy in the second when the Jets (6-0-0) scored three goals from Nino Niederreiter, Colin Miller and noted Blues killer Kyle Connor, who has 31 points (14 goals, 17 assists) in 24 career games against St. Louis.
“We came out and had a good first,” Blues defenseman Ryan Suter said. “The second, they’re such an explosive team, you let off the gas a little bit and they take advantage of it and that’s what happened there in the second.”
It’s exactly what happened, despite the Blues getting two goals from Brandon Saad, including the first which was the 500th point of his NHL career.
“It’s a tough game,” Saad said. “I think we did a good job battling back. Second period, I think we were a little but lackadaisical with the puck and they have a good hockey team, opportunistic, skilled and they can capitalize on their plays. Overall I thought we battled pretty hard, but we’ve got to clean up mistakes there in the second.”
Saad’s goal in the first against another noted Blues killer, goalie Connor Hellebuyck, came off a rebound of a Robert Thomas wrister from the blue line. It gave him 254 goals, 246 assists in his 867th game, a period in which the Blues outshot the Jets 11-6.
“It’s special for sure,” Saad said. “It’s something you kind of think about when you’re one away and obviously you want to contribute to a win, but at the same time it does feel good.”
Things changed moving forward, and the Jets were able to get the Blues on a couple of counters and get them in some penalty trouble.
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They got through a kill of Suter’s trip in the offensive zone, but when Schenn was nabbed for holding Josh Morrissey, also in the offensive zone, at 6:39, the Jets made that one count when Nino Niederreiter was able to tip in Pionk’s wrister from the blue line at 8:12 to tie the game 1-1.
Miller scored off the rush, stepping into a one-timer from near the blue line at13:58 for a 2-1 Winnipeg lead, and Connor made it 3-1 at17:40 when he snapped one from the left circle short side on Jordan Binnington, who made 21 saves, after the Blues had a chance to get a puck out but didn’t when Schenn and Mathieu Joseph collided in the middle of the zone.
“I just think we kind of got away from our game,” Blues coach Drew Bannister said. “We were putting pucks deep and it was just one and the second guy was late and it seemed to happen in the d-zone a little too. We had times where we could end plays, they were able to get their second guy in before us, so it was just us playing on our toes.
“I thought in the first and the third, we played on our toes. We were a little on our heels there in the second.”
And when the Jets got a two-goal advantage, it would be difficult to come back from that, but the Blues had every opportunity.
When Saad scored off another rebound, this time off Jordan Kyrou’s shot after Suter was able to get a puck in, retrieve it, keep it alive for Thomas, who then found Kyrou, at 5:15 to make it 3-2, there were ample opportunities to not only tie but perhaps even grab a lead.
The problem more so than anything was that seemingly ever-elusive shooting mindset that somehow eludes the Blues’ players. None more so than a sequence with just under six minutes left when Kyrou initially fanned on a one-timer, but he and Pavel Buchnevich turned the Jets over at the blue line, kept a puck alive, Buchnevich went to Saad on a 1-2 punch but Saad could not get a shot off falling to a knee. He retrieved it, got Suter coming down the left point, but the defenseman, instead of getting a clean look, tried passing back to a marked Saad and a shot was ever to be had.
“It just kind of didn’t seem right for any one of us to get off a one-timer,” Saad said. “We were kind of bouncing it around making plays and then obviously it got broken up. We’d like to get some more pucks on net on that play, but at the same time, you’re trying to play hockey, you’re trying to read the game.”
And Schenn had one last chance for the tie with 43 seconds and Binnington on the bench but he couldn’t get the bouncing puck at the right post.
“It just rolled off his shoulder or blocker,” Schenn said of Hellebuyck. “I had the open net and went to hit the rolling puck and it hit the top of my stick and didn’t get all of it.
“… They took advantage of some breakdowns that we had. Before we know it, they had a two-goal lead. Got to clean some things up, but the boys played hard tonight and tried to battle back.”
The Blues did lose Thomas to a lower-body injury when he blocked a Pionk shot early in the third and did not play the final 12 minutes. Bannister called it a lower-body injury.
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