The Winnipeg Jets stay undefeated with a 3-2 win over the St. Louis Blues Tuesday night. They extend their winning streak to six and remain the league’s only team with no regulation losses. The Blues fall to a record of 4-3-0 despite a hard fought effort.
The Jets kicked off the game with the Jets second line of Cole Perfetti, Vladislav Namestnikov and Nikolaj Ehlers, who made their presence felt early with two early scoring chances in the first three minutes. Jets star defenceman Josh Morrissey jumped into the offence on a play minutes after and was caught off guard with the Blues intercepting the puck and turning the other way for an odd man rush and subtly swung the momentum towards their direction.
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Minutes later, the Blues used the momentum to capitalize with star forward Robert Thomas making a great play by recognizing the Jets were outnumbered infront of the net two to one. Thomas took advantage and put a low shot on net to create a perfect redirect to linemate Brandon Saad alone in front which he shots past netminder Connor Hellebuyck for the game’s first goal.
The Jets ended the first period with physical play to show they weren’t going to allow another goal easily and that was highlighted by captain Adam Lowry hammering Blues forward Dylan Holloway just minutes after the goal.
Morrissey took the first penalty of the game in the closing minutes of the period when Blues forwards Jordan Kyrou and Pavel Buchnevich performed a quick give and go that saw Kyrou in tight in front of the net and forced Morrissey’s hand to prevent a clean shot and earned him a hooking penalty that carried over into the second period.
The next period started with the Jets killing off the penalty and in the process generating a sizeable amount of momentum back their way and led to a big three goal period. It was all started with Blues captain Brayden Schenn holding onto Morrissey too long on a play coming around the Jets net and put them on the power play.
The Jets second power play unit got the job done with defenceman Neal Pionk spotting an open Jet in Nino Niederreiter, who redirects a Pionk shot to the opposite side of the net and past Blues netminder Jordan Binnington for the game-tying goal.
The Blues applied pressure back onto the Jets for a significant amount of time. However, the Jets battled through it and got the momentum back with a clean breakout that saw Ehlers and Perfetti skate into the Blues end and create an opening space for defenceman Colin Miller.
Perfetti tees up a wide open 94.2 mph one timer shot from Miller that blows past Binnington’s glove for the Jets second goal of the game and the 2-1 lead. Miller had the fastest tracked shot in the league last season, that clocked in at a whopping 102.5 mph.
When changing onto the ice, Connor continued the Jets rush of momentum when receiving an open lane to the net late in the period and ripping a top shelf shot past Binnington, extending the lead to 3-1 for the Jets.
Winnipeg bench boss Scott Arniel attributed the quick turnaround to playing more crisp than in the first period.
“We got out of our zone a lot cleaner and fast. We won a bunch of battles. Obviously, scored with the power play goal and then the Miller goal. We got rolling again, and that’s kind of got them back on their heels,” he said “I think that once you can get a lead on the road there, we now can get into kind of how we really wanted to play.”
The Blues regained some momentum in the third period when taking advantage of a congested netfront that helped Brandon Saad find a rebound off a shot from Kyrou that he puts it in the back of the net for his second goal and making it a one score game.
St. Louis had a solid opportunity to tie the game when getting a late power play due to Jets defenceman Dylan Samberg attempting to clear the puck but putting the puck over the glass and out of play. They came close and had a flurry of chances in the minutes following the penalty expiring but were unsuccessful highlighted by a diving save from Hellebuyck in the dying seconds.
The Jets closed out the game for the win despite trailing 1-0 and were outshot 11 to 6 after the first period. Winnipeg tightened things up heading into the second period and responded with 18 shots to St. Louis’s 16 shots over the last two periods.
It was a big night for Perfetti, who had assists on all three of the Jets second period goals. The 22-year-old Whitby native told media following the game that it’s felt good over the past two games to have his line start producing points and credited the team’s defence for contributing to it.
“A lot of it is coming from our good D-zone [play]. We’re taking care of things in our end of the ice and really trying to dial that in,” he said “We were getting chances in the first couple of games — not as many as we would have liked — but now we’re really starting to get more and more and the puck is starting to go in the net. When we play like that defensively as a line the offense is always going to be there.”
The Jets look to keep their undefeated streak alive Thursday when they travel to the West Coast to take on the Seattle Kraken.
