Jets closing on wild-card spot

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This article was published 13/03/2022 (1274 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ST. LOUIS — If only the Winnipeg Jets could play the St. Louis Blues every game this season.

Facing a team well above you in the standings is usually not good for business, but the Jets have certainly bucked that trend against their Central Division rivals. An exciting 4-3 overtime victory on Sunday night at Enterprise Center completes a near-perfect season series (3-0-1) against St. Louis.

“I don’t think it’s a special recipe we’ve got for them,” said Jets centre Pierre-Luc Dubois, who fired the game-winner at 2:25 of extra time. “They’re a tough team to play against so we know we have to play well. They have a big back end, good skill up front, a lot of depth. And a good goalie. It’s always a good game against them, and it always feels good to get a win.”

Winnipeg will need plenty more outings like this one if they want to remain in the playoff race. They’re now 27-23-10 and four points out of the final Western Conference playoff spot, currently held by the struggling Vegas Golden Knights. St. Louis falls to 34-17-8.

Prior to Sunday, the Jets had won just three of 13 games that went beyond 60 minutes, a puzzling development to say the least given all the skill they have. Interim head coach Dave Lowry changed his approach in this one, playing three forwards to start the three-on-three-session.

Although Dubois, Kyle Connor and Nikolaj Ehlers didn’t convert on their first shift, a highly-skilled line that you could reasonably argue is the future of the franchise made no mistake a couple minutes later. Ehlers fed a perfect pass to Dubois for his 24th of the year.

“Worked out for us. Those guys made a nice play,” said Jets captain Blake Wheeler. “Sometimes it’s a nice little shot in the arm, especially, like I said, I think we had a little more time at the end than they did. Those guys, obviously all three can skate really well , were able to spring it and those guys made a heck of a play.”

Winnipeg also reversed another gloomy statistic, winning for just the fourth time in 29 games when they’ve been trailing after two periods. They really stepped up their play in the final frame, turning a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 advantage with a pair of goals just 63 seconds apart from Mark Scheifele (at 6:30) and Connor (at 7:33), his team-leading 37th.

But the Blues forced overtime when Brayden Schenn was left all alone in the slot to fire a puck past Connor Hellebuyck with 2:11 left in regulation and Jordan Binnington on the ice for an extra attacker.

“I really liked our level, our desperation,” said Lowry. “We played with lots of urgency, we played with lots of… you know, we had a purpose and I really felt, even giving up the goal late, we showed a lot of resilience. We stayed with our game and we understand the value of getting that extra point.”

St. Louis had a glorious chance to win in the skills session, getting a three-on-one rush after Scheifele was tackled without a penalty call. Hellebuyck made the save — one of 28 on the night — and the Jets turned the puck the other way and buried the winner less than a minute later.

“Let’s just say that God took care of us there. He’s always watching over us. The hockey gods were watching over us there,” Scheifele said following the game. “I thought we made a lot of good plays today. I kind of liked our game from the get-go. A few miscues, but I like when we are making plays and playing as a unit. That’s the hockey we should be playing, making plays and making teams try to take it from us, as opposed to just always giving it to them. I really liked the way that we played.”

Winnipeg had downed New Jersey 2-1 on Thursday night to start this three-game road trip, led by a terrific performance in goal from Eric Comrie. Hellebuyck struggled the next night in a 5-2 loss to the New York Islanders, leading to some debate about who should start in this one.

Lowry opted to go back to his No. 1 guy, despite the fact Hellebuyck had been beaten for four goals or more in six straight games.

“I will tell you what, Bucky gave us a chance to win, like he does every night,” said Lowry. “He made some big saves early. He kept us in the hockey game. He allowed us an opportunity to settle in and get into a rhythm.”

David Perron opened the scoring on the power play at 16:48 of the first period, with Evgeny Svechnikov in the box for slashing. The young Russian forward then added to his team’s woes by taking a 10-minute misconduct. That forced Lowry to shuffle his lines, with Ehlers taking Svechnikov’s spot along with Dubois and Connor. They teamed up to tie it midway through the second, with Ehlers firing his 15th of the year. The trio would remain together the rest of the night, with Svechnikov benched for the entire second period.

A ghastly giveaway by Kristian Vesalainen in the final minute of the middle frame proved costly, with Vladimir Tarasenko beating Hellebuyck through the five-hole at 19:33. Vesalainen was then removed off the line with Adam Lowry and Andrew Copp for the third period, basically taking Svechnikov’s place in the proverbial dog house. Svechnikov joined Copp and Lowry on that third line.

However, more juggling ensued after Copp went down with an apparent head injury after he was hit by Blues forward Oskar Sundqvist. There was no penalty call on the play. Copp, who has four documented concussions over his career including one earlier this season, will be further evaluated on Monday.

Copp had a terrific chance to tie the game just before he got hurt. But the Jets really picked it up from that point on, getting the tying goal and go-ahead tally in short order before the late St. Louis marker set the stage for overtime.

“It’s three guys out there that only have one thing in mind, and that’s scoring a goal,” Dubois said of the mindset between him, Ehlers and Connor. “I think, for the other team, it’s a tough decision to make on who you want to send out there. I think in overtime it’s a matter of time before somebody scores a goal. I say it’s a tough decision to make, because you don’t really want to send just three guys to defend, you want to win, too. But it’s a tough decision, and I think it can lead to good things like tonight.”

The Jets will now face the Golden Knights on Tuesday at Canada Life Centre, with a chance to pull within two points of their Sin City rivals.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg