Jets follow the recipe and top Blues for fourth win in a row

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This article was published 27/02/2024 (574 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

While the organization searches for some valuable victories in the community, the Winnipeg Jets keep stringing the wins together on the ice.

A 4-2 triumph on Tuesday night over the St. Louis Blues makes it four-in-a-row, and seven of the last eight, to improve to a franchise best 37-15-5. That has them first in the Central Division, first in the Western Conference and second-overall in the NHL based on point percentage.

It’s hard to imagine asking much more of the hockey club, which has made plenty of headlines in recent days due to sagging attendance. The 13,139 who witnessed this one at Canada Life Centre, including NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, saw another solid performance that follows a similar script to countless other games this season.

Sean Monahan, Brenden Dillon, Kyle Connor and Alex Iafallo had the goals for the home team, while Laurent Brossoit made 36 saves in net. Pavel Buchnevich and Brandon Saad scored for the visitors.

“We know the recipe for us when we’re playing well,” Dillon said.

Here’s a closer look at how Winnipeg cooked up this latest tasty dish:

1) A feisty start — Maybe there’s some long-standing grudge that needed to be settled. Or perhaps they were just wanting to wake their teams up.

Whatever the case, Jets captain Adam Lowry and Blues captain Brayden Schenn got themselves into the game early by dropping the gloves at centre ice for a brief but spirited tilt.

Lowry scored the takedown, but headed immediately to the dressing room for some repairs to his hand. Schenn also appeared have a couple bloodied knuckles as well. Both players didn’t end up missing any shifts once they finished serving their five-minute sentences.

2) Second-line spark – The ongoing search for a capable second line may be getting closer to a solution. Jets coach Rick Bowness has been hoping to find some chemistry to go along with new centre Monahan, and it appears Nikolaj Ehlers has just that.

After a dynamic outing last Friday in Chicago — Ehlers scored twice — Monahan missed Sunday’s game against Arizona with illness.

Back in the lineup on Tuesday, that duo picked up where they left off, with Ehlers making a terrific pass in tight quarters to Monahan, who quickly one-timed the shot to give the Jets a 1-0 lead at 8:53 of the first period. That’s Monahan’s 19th goal of the season, and his sixth in nine games with the Jets.

“They were good the first night they played together, and they were very good tonight,” said Bowness.

3) Seventh heaven – Dillon has repeatedly made it clear he’d love to sign a new contract in Winnipeg. The price tag for the pending unrestricted free agent defenceman might have jumped a few more dollars as the 32-year-old set a new career-high on Tuesday with his seventh goal of the season.

“It feels good,” said Dillon. “I might have jinxed myself after I missed that wide-open empty net a couple games ago. But I think it’s just been a lot of fun to have the success we’ve been having this year as a group. Everyone is reaping the benefits of how well we’re doing as a team.”

The blue-line blast, at 10:20 of the opening frame, may have grazed off a St. Louis player on its way past Joel Hofer, the rookie Winnipeg product who had plenty of family and friends on hand to see his first-ever NHL start in his hometown.

Hofer finished with 28 saves on 32 shots.

4) Tip your hat to the top trio — The No. 1 line of Connor, Mark Scheifele and Gabe Vilardi have had several rough outings in a row when it comes to even strength production, despite producing plenty of points on the power play. But they had a good night at the office against the Blues.

They were on the ice for Dillon’s goal, with Scheifele drawing the lone assist, and then Connor scored at 15:33 of the first period with a sneaky wrister that beat Hofer. It was Connor’s 24th of the season, including the fourth straight game he’s lit the lamp and the third straight outing he’s notched the game-winner (the previous two came in overtime against the Blackhawks and Coyotes).

It was a big one, too, since Buchnevich had cut Winnipeg’s lead to 2-1 shortly after Dillon scored. The Jets were back in control.

5) AI snaps the slump — It’s been tough sledding for Iafallo, who began the night without a point in nine straight games, and without a goal over the last 20. Despite that, he’s been elevated to play on the second line with Monahan and Ehlers, with Cole Perfetti being demoted to the fourth line.

Iafallo’s eighth of the year, at 10:13 of the third period, would put Winnipeg back up by a pair, as Brandon Saad had scored midway through the second to bring the Blues back within one.

“(Iafallo) does so many good things for us. Just a Swiss Army knife,” said Dillon.

“The biggest credit that you can give – and compliment – is that whether he’s on the first line or the fourth line, he’s impacting the game positively. I know that for forwards, everyone loves playing with him. He’s a guy that you were just hoping he was going to get one to go. The entire bench got up for that one. When he was able to get a big goal for us at a great time in the game, we were super happy for him.”

Iafallo said it was certianly a relief to light the lamp.

“I just felt like had to put one in eventually, eventually it would go in,” he said. I was just trying to get to the net and Fly (Ehlers) made a great shot there. Good thing it went wide, I was just able to put it back there. I was just trying to get to the net, sometimes those go in anyway.”

6) Extra, extra -With two more assists on Tuesday, Josh Morrissey came close to joining an elite list of defencemen to string together three straight games with at least three helpers. Only Cale Makar, Roman Josi, Ray Bourque and Paul Coffey can make such a claim. Ultimately, Morrissey came one apple short. Still, he now has 11 assists over his past five games (one, two, three, three, two).

Brossoit is now 9-4-2 this season with a sparkling 2.26 goals-against-average and .922 save-percentage.

“He was great again. He’s been very consistent with his level of play,” said Bowness. “We have no hesitance at all to put him in the net against anybody.”

Winnipeg went 0-for-2 on the power play, and 3-for-3 on the penalty kill.

The Jets finished the season series against the Blues a perfect 3-0-0, and they are now 16-3-1 against the Central Division this year.

Forwards David Gustafsson and Rasmus Kupari and defencemen Logan Stanley were the healthy scratches.

The Jets now hit the road for three games in four days beginning Thursday against the Dallas Stars.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

X: @mikemcintyrewpg