Jets get their revenge by shutting out Blues 4-0

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This article was published 17/12/2017 (2828 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Similarly impressive performances by the Winnipeg Jets within a 24-hour span produced very different results, but such is life in the NHL’s ultra-competitive Central Division.

The Jets outplayed the St. Louis Blues for the second time in as many days and were justly rewarded Sunday with a convincing 4-0 home-ice victory.

Adam Lowry and Patrik Laine broke open a scoreless game with second-period goals, while Mark Scheifele and Josh Morrissey added third-period tallies for the hosts.

Coming off a 2-0 shutout to the Blues despite doing plenty of good things Saturday in St. Louis, the Jets (19-10-5) rebounded with a dominant effort, outshooting the visitors by another wide margin, this time 46-24.

Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck registered his second shutout of the season as his club snapped a two-game losing streak and is 4-4-1 in the month of December.

“We kind of deserved this one because (of the loss the day before). I thought we were the better team,” said Hellebuyck.

“It’s very satisfying and I think it’s better for the guys in this room because now they know that they did play the right way (Saturday) and they continued to play the right way.”

Blake Wheeler, who sounded like he’s still battling the cold he’s had for more than a week, said the Jets shook off the frustration of firing four-dozen pucks at Blues goalie Carter Hutton the night before and coming up empty, remained focused and played the same dogged style of hockey to grab two well-earned points.

“Credit goes to every guy for just staying in the fight and saying the right things and staying engaged, and we finally broke through there and were able to take control of the game in the second period,” he said, noting it showed tremendous character to maintain that level of consistency against the powerful Blues (22-11-2) in the second half of the back-to-back, home-and-home series.

“You leave that game (Saturday) and you don’t really know what happened. You play half as well sometimes and you score five, and then you play as hard and as well as you can expect a team to play and you come out with nothing,” he added. “It’s frustrating for a team that’s used to scoring goals and likes scoring goals. That’s why it was great to have guys say the right things before the game, not down on the fact that we didn’t results last night, but motivated and a little bit p—– off.”

Winnipeg is three points behind St. Louis and Nashville (21-7-4) in the division, and five up on fourth-place Dallas (18-14-2).

Call it the 63rd time lucky for the Jets, who finally scored on their 15th shot on goalie Jake Allen after taking 48 the night before at Scottrade Center.

Allen had no chance on the Lowry’s fifth goal of the year, the game opener. Jets winger Brandon Tanev didn’t just take a hit to make a play, he got squished by a pair of Blues after winning a foot race deep and then leaving the puck for Andrew Copp, who found Lowry alone in front at 4:32.

“That’s what (Tanev) does, he takes hits, he blocks shots, he’s great on the forecheck, so (it was a) great play by him and then (Lowry) is in the right spot and I was able to get it through a hole and he buries it. It was nice for our line to be rewarded,” said Copp, who also drew an assist on Mark Scheifele’s 15th goal in the third period.

Copp said finally getting that first goal allowed the team to breathe a little easier.

“We’ve been really good with the lead, too, so I think getting the lead was important because it seems like other teams try to open the game against us,” he said. “It’s that snowball effect, kind of what happened last year, but in the opposite way where we’d get down and then we’d try and open up the game.”

Allen was beaten cleanly on Laine’s bullet, his league-leading 10th power-play marker, at 15:13 of the middle frame after a nifty pass from Mathieu Perreault.

Josh Morrissey closed out the scoring with his fifth of the year less than two minutes after setting up Scheifele.

The Scheifele-Wheeler-Kyle Connor line was extremely effective, generating a number of terrific scoring chances while digging deep in their own end to shut down Blues’ stars such as Brayden Schenn and Vladimir Tarasenko.

There was no quit by the unit, despite the irritation of misfiring on many good opportunities Saturday and then botching some early opportunities in the rematch, said head coach Paul Maurice.

“They put up 17 shots last night and came away without anything, and it’s frustration, but they didn’t change their game. That’s the fear that you have when you have an offensive group that isn’t getting results, final results — goals and assists — that they will start playing perimeter games or look for a different kind of offence,” Maurice said. “They didn’t do that and they were rewarded.

“From a coaching point, more in terms of quality of play, if the puck doesn’t go in the net for them, it’s not the end of the world because their play is right.”

The Jets have scrapped a scheduled practice Monday and will head out later in the day for a three-game road trip prior to Christmas, with matchups against the Nashville Predators on Tuesday, the Boston Bruins on Thursday and the New York Islanders in Brooklyn, N.Y., Saturday.

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPJasonBell