Little goes a long way

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This article was published 03/12/2016 (3205 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ST. LOUIS — Mathieu Perreault stood back in his locker at Scottrade Center and took a moment before revealing his thoughts. The Winnipeg Jets were just hours away from playing the St. Louis Blues, a team that had won seven of their last eight games and six straight at home.

As a Central Division foe, Perreault, a veteran winger for the Jets, was well aware of the Blues’ success this season. But he was even more aware of his own team’s struggles.

Less than a month ago, the Jets, after shutting out the Chicago Blackhawks 4-0 on Nov. 15, were in second place in the Central Division. But a dismal stretch followed, with Winnipeg unable to collect a single point on an ensuing, season-high five-game road trip.

“Before we get on that road trip we were doing pretty good,” said Perreault, who was forced to watch from home, out with a lower-body injury. “Just a bunch of young guys having fun.”

Knowing the task at hand Saturday would be a difficult one — captain Blake Wheeler predicted even a perfect game was no guarantee of beating the Blues — Perreault had a sudden change in his tone.

“Two wins here and we’re back to .500 and we set ourselves up to fight for a playoff spot; if it goes the other way we are in a tough spot for us to battle back,” he said. “I see this game for us tonight as a must-win.”

It took a full effort for three periods, and more, but Perreault and the Jets would follow through on their quest to stay alive in a division that offers little mercy to those that stumble, beating the Blues 3-2 in overtime.

Bryan Little scored 17 second into the extra period, converting a perfect pass from rookie Patrik Laine to beat Blues goalie Carter Hutton, who was in for regular starter Jake Allen. The win not only earned the Jets two much-needed points, but also injected some life into a club that had been sucked dry over the better part of the last month.

“That’s the way we want to play. That’s our identity game,” said Jets head coach Paul Maurice. “We’ve had a hard time looking like that… getting the game to look like that, especially battling some adversity in the penalty box — we’re real pleased with that game.”

The Jets improved to 12-13-2 with the win and now have victories in three of their last four games. With the loss, St. Louis snaps a six-game winning streak at home and is 14-7-4. The Jets will return to action today when they travel to Chicago to take on the Blackhawks.

“We needed that,” said Chris Thorburn, who scored his second goal of the season — a short-handed marker in the first period. “Against a team like that, it doesn’t come easy, ever. We know how important these are.”

Consistency has been difficult to come by for the Jets this season. They’ve battled through injuries all year. The latest bit of bad news came during the morning skate when Mark Scheifele, the Jets’ leading scorer, was ruled out with a lower-body injury.

The loss of Scheifele not only left the Jets without a much-needed scoring threat against a Blues team with a prolific offence — St. Louis had scored three goals in each of their last nine games — it also forced Winnipeg to do a last-minute shuffle of the lines, including bumping up Little to the top line with Laine and Nikolaj Ehlers, and moving Wheeler to centre between Drew Stafford and Perreault.

What appeared to be a horrible set of circumstances for the Jets was actually a blessing in disguise.

After Thorburn put Winnipeg up 1-0, the lead would be erased when the Blues answered with two quick goals in the second period — first from Alex Steen, then from Dmitrij Jaskin — against Michael Hutchinson just two minutes, 10 seconds apart. Hutchinson, who replaced Connor Hellebuyck in net for the first time in two weeks, made 20 saves for the win. 

It was shortly after that the connection between Little and Laine would finally come to life. The duo connected on a give-and-go that ended with Laine rifling his 16th goal of the season (Laine is now tied with Sidney Crosby for the most goals in the NHL).

It was exactly what Jets fans have come to expect from Laine, an 18-year-old from Finland. What they’ve seen less of this year is his slick passing skills, which were on full display just seconds into overtime when he found Little with the perfect pass on the back door for the game-winning goal.

“He’s got such a good shot and people are going to respect it. I think his passing game is very underrated, too,” said Little, who after a 23-game absence now has two goals and three points in his last three games. “All I had to do was put it in the empty net there.”

Perhaps the biggest struggle of the night for the Jets wasn’t the Blues, but the officiating. Winnipeg was called for five penalties and had to fight off four power plays, while earning only one for themselves. 

The biggest came in the final two minutes, when a high stick on Laine appeared to be missed, only to have the Jets called for a holding penalty on Josh Morrissey. The Jets would kill it off, later scoring in overtime to secure the two points.

“Hopefully we come out in Chicago and have some legs tomorrow,” said Little. “That would be another two big points for us.

jeff.hamilton@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @jeffkhamilton