Jets down Blues 5-3, back in control of series

Mark Scheifele didn’t make it beyond the first period. Connor Hellebuyck let in another softy. The Winnipeg Jets, it seemed, were in a world of hurt on Wednesday night inside Canada Life Centre.

Just when it looked like the NHL’s best regular season team was about to find itself on the brink of playoff elimination, the shorthanded squad dug deep and pulled away with one of the most important wins in franchise history.

A 5-3 triumph over the St. Louis Blues now has Winnipeg on the cusp of advancing to the second round. They lead the best-of-seven series 3-2, with Game 6 set for Friday evening in Missouri.

“Really proud of the effort,” said captain Adam Lowry.

“Sometimes when you lose your No. 1 centre, you lose a key piece to your lineup there can be a bit of a sag, an emotional letdown. But you know, I thought the guys really rallied around it.”

This one was not for the faint of heart, with the Jets finding another gear as the adversity began to pile up.

Scheifele has been a prime St. Louis target the entire series and was on the receiving end of two huge hits in the opening frame — one from Blues captain Brayden Schenn, who was given a minor penalty for interference on the play, and then later in the period from Radek Faksa.

As the Jets emerged for the middle frame, coach Scott Arniel was irate. He called over referee Jake Brenk and read him the riot act — no doubt angered by the news he’d received from medical staff that he’d have to continue this critical contest without his top centre.

Arniel felt the Schenn play was deserving of more than two minutes — replays showed he may have left his feet to hit a player that didn’t have the puck — but the damage was already done. He didn’t have an immediate post-game update on Scheifele’s status.

It appeared like things were going from bad to worse when Blues rookie Jimmy Snuggerud beat Hellebuyck early in the second period to tie the game 2-2. It was just the seventh shot of the night against the reigning Vezina Trophy winner, who had been chased from two straight lopsided losses in St. Louis, and it was one he absolutely needed to have.

Would the Jets — who had just watched their second one-goal lead of the night evaporate — add another ugly chapter to the growing narrative that they wilt under pressure?

Quite the opposite, actually.

“I thought throughout the lineup, it was outstanding,” said Arniel.

“We were physical. We were battling. Competing. Doing all the things we have to do to get ourselves going. Just real proud of the way the guys stuck together and just played our game. We got to Jet hockey. We got to Jet hockey early and we played it for 60 minutes.”

A pair of goals in the latter half of the period gave the home team some much-needed breathing room, paving the way for an efficient final frame in which they mostly held the Blues in check, eventually adding an empty-netter before giving up a late tally in the final minute.

“Not only do I think we defended well, but we absolutely attacked them and kind of had some stretches where we poured it on, doing what we do best,” said forward Mason Appleton.

“We forechecked really hard, we recovered pucks, we made a lot of plays in the o-zone, we got on top of their goalie. We did what we needed to do to win that game.”

STEPPING UP

With Scheifele down and out, Vlad Namestnikov got the bump up to the top line to skate between Kyle Connor and Gabe Vilardi, who was returning from a 15-game injury absence.

The same Namestnikov who had gone 20 straight games without a goal and had just two assists in his last 12 games, none in the playoffs.

He came up huge.

Namestnikov and Connor set up defenceman Dylan DeMelo for the go-ahead goal at 11:05 of the second. Vilardi was tied up near the front of the net with Blues defenceman Colton Parayko, whose backside ended up deflecting DeMelo’s blast past Jordan Binnington into the back of the net.

Then, with just 69 seconds left before the intermission, Namestnikov took a perfect pass from Connor and beat Binnington for a crucial insurance marker at the time, which would turn out to be the game-winner.

“Things happen in playoffs, sometimes the puck doesn’t go in, but you kind of have to stick with it,” Namestnikov said of his drought.

“When things don’t go your way, we lost Scheif, people have to step up. So I think as a team we stepped up and got the win.”

Winnipeg hadn’t scored a second period goal during the previous four games of the series, and these two couldn’t have come at a better time.

Connor, who had opened the scoring just 83 seconds into the game off a nice feed from Scheifele and Appleton (who had three assists in the game), now leads the Jets with eight points (4G, 4A) in this series.

Vilardi played 18:23, with two shots on goal, four blocks and a hit.

“He was great. We know what he brings to the table,” Connor said of getting one linemate back on a night he lost the other.

“Wins a ton of puck battles. Smart. Great defensively. Blocks a ton of shots. What he means to our power play, just having that right shot. He’s a game-changer, and I’m glad he’s back, feeling good.”

MAKING A POINT

The Jets were repeatedly victimized in Games 3 and 4 by the Blues ability to get shots from the blue-line which were either screened or tipped to get by Hellebuyck.

It looked like that trend might continue when Nathan Walker got the Blues on the board early in the first period, deflecting a Parayko shot shortly after Connor’s opening tally.

But give the Jets credit. Not only did they begin to box out the St. Louis forwards trying to set up shop in front of their net, they also did a much better job of covering off the points to limit the number of pucks getting through.

“That was good. That’s Jet hockey, defense,” said Namestnikov.

“We played defense first and then take it to the offense. And I think for the most part of that game, we did that. We stopped them in the neutral zone, and forechecked and kind of hounded him in their end.”

And, in a bit of turnabout being fair play, they created some traffic jams in front of Binnington. Nino Niederreiter gave the Jets a 2-1 lead near the midway mark of the first period doing just that, deflecting a Dylan Samberg point shot.

ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT

Hellebuyck, who might just be named a Hart Trophy finalist on Thursday morning, had vowed to be better after his two previous outings ended in pulls and chants of “We Want Connor” from the rabid St. Louis faithful.

This one was a bit of a mixed bag.

Hellebuyck made one of the best saves you’ll see in the first period, with the score tied 1-1, when he dove across to get a piece of an Oskar Sundqvist one-timer on a shorthanded 2-on-1 rush.

“It’s one of those saves that Bucky wows you with,” said Appleton, who was on the ice at the time and had a great view of it.

“He has a tendency to do things like that. That’s why he’s the best goalie in the world. That was an absolutely insane save and it kind of flipped the momentum of the game there.”

Hellebuyck then brushed aside the Snuggerud stinker and stopped the next 11 shots he faced before Walker scored with just under a minute left to finish the scoring.

The final numbers weren’t great — 19 shots, 16 saves — but the Jets have to take solace knowing they’re just one win away from moving on even though Hellebuyck has yet to show his best work so far.

“That paddle save that he makes, you can call it series changing, you can call it game changing, but that was a key play,” said Lowry.

“I thought he had a heck of a game. Disappointing to give up that third one for him, but he kept us in it and he really shut the door when we got that lead.”

GETTING UGLY

The Schenn hit on Scheifele wasn’t the only nasty piece of business between two teams who are clearly getting sick of seeing each other.

There were plenty of others, including an undetected spear from Cole Perfetti on Zach Bolduc that had the Blues forward in some agony in the first period. Defenceman Josh Morrissey was left labouring on multiple occasions after being on the wrong end of some huge hits, while Brandon Tanev sparked a fracas by playing a game of human bumper cars.

Then, later in the third period, veteran St. Louis defenceman Ryan Suter got away with a big cross-check on Niederreiter that was either missed or ignored by the men in stripes.

The NHL’s department of player safety, which reviews everything, might have a lengthy list from this one.

KEY PLAY

Namestnikov’s first goal in 21 games was enormous.

THREE STARS

1. WPG LW Kyle Connor: 1 goal, 2 assists

2. WPG C Vlad Namestnikov: 1 goal, 1 assist

3. STL RW Nathan Walker: 2 goals

EXTRA, EXTRA

With Vilardi returning to the lineup, forward David Gustafsson was a healthy scratch. The Jets also swapped out defenceman Haydn Fleury for Logan Stanley. St. Louis made one change, with injured defenceman Tyler Tucker coming out in favour of Suter.

Jets forward Nikolaj Ehlers is getting closer to a return from a lower-body injury that has cost him the past six games. He is currently skating in a non-contact jersey.

The Jets went 0-for-2 on the power play and are now just 2-for-14 in the series. St. Louis went 0-for-1.

Puck drop on Friday night is set for 7 p.m. CT. If the Blues win to force a winner-take-all Game 7, that would occur Sunday in Winnipeg.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

X and Bluesky: @mikemcintyrewpg