The Winnipeg Jets are halfway to the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, largely thanks to Kyle Connor.
Winnipeg’s leading regular-season goal-scorer (41) got the winner for the second time in as many games, beating Jordan Binnington 1:43 into the third period to give the Jets a 2-1 victory over the St. Louis Blues on Monday night and a 2-0 lead in the best-of-7 Western Conference First Round series.
Connor found a soft spot in the defense, setting up between the hashmarks and one-timing Cole Perfetti’s perfect pass from behind the net behind Binnington before the Blues goaltender could react.
“I kind of got into a weak spot between the defensemen and the forwards,” Connor, who tied for seventh in the NHL in goal scoring, told ESPN. “[Mark] Scheifele did a great job on the forecheck, and [Perfetti] made a perfect pass.”
The Jets defense and goaltender Connor Hellebuyck did the rest, limiting the Blues to five shots in the third period and 22 for the game – just 14 at even strength. That came two days after Winnipeg held St. Louis to 20 shots overall and only two in the third period.
Hellebuyck allowed only a power-play goal by Blues rookie Jimmy Snuggerud with two seconds left in the first period that tied the game 1-1. He’s looked like the likely repeat Vezina Trophy winner he figures to be after helping the Jets win the Presidents’ Trophy by allowing the fewest goals in the NHL. That’s a big change from last season, when he won the Vezina for his regular-season performance but was awful in the postseason, and the Jets lost to the Colorado Avalanche in five games in a first-round series.
The Blues, the League’s hottest team since play resumed after the 4 Nations Face-Off in February, have played well for the most part – but not well enough to win. They hope going back to Enterprise Center, where they were 12-0-1 in their final 13 home games, will help turn the tide. St. Louis can’t afford anything less than wins on Thursday and Sunday to have any hope of winning this series.
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3 takeaways after Jets edge Blues to take 2-0 series lead
1. Top line comes through again for Winnipeg
This series won’t last much longer if the Blues can’t find a way to shut down Winnipeg’s top line, which accounted for both goals on Monday and has produced five of the six non-empty netters in the series.
Connor and Scheifele accounted for all the Jets scoring in Game 2, with Scheifele starting the play that led to the winning goal.
Scheifele and Connor each had a goal and two assists in Winnipeg’s come-from-behind 5-3 win in Game 1 on Saturday; each earned a helper on linemate Alex Iafallo’s tying goal before Scheifele had the primary assist on Connor’s game-winner with 1:36 remaining.
Only a terrific night by Binnington kept Connor and Scheifele from doing more damage — Scheifele, in particular, was a threat every time he was on the ice.
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2. Lack of 5-on-5 scoring killing Blues
St. Louis has gotten plenty of production from its power play. The Blues scored on their first of four advantages on Monday and are 3-for-7 against a solid Winnipeg penalty-killing unit. They’ve also limited the League’s best regular-season power play to one goal in six tries.
Their problem has come when the teams are playing 5-on-5.
The Blues have gone more than five periods without putting the puck past Hellebuyck with the teams playing at full strength. Their lone 5-on-5 goal came when Oskar Sundqvist scored at 18:10 of the first period in Game 1.
The Jets kept the Blues on the outside for most of Game 2, finishing with a lopsided 12-3 edge in high-danger scoring chances at 5-on-5, according to Natural Stat Trick. That included a 5-0 edge in the third period – and not even pulling Binnington for an extra attacker with 2:17 remaining enabled them to generate any pressure.
3. Bang, boom crash
Neither of these teams was especially physical during the regular season; the Blues averaged 24.4 hits per game, the Jets were below that at 20.7.
But the playoffs are a different animal, and there’s been plenty of body-banging through the first two games.
The Jets had 33 hits to 29 for the Blues in Game 2, partly because Winnipeg defenseman Luke Schenn outhit his brother, Blues captain Brayden Schenn, 7-5. Brayden had led the Blues with nine hits to five for Luke in Game 1, when St. Louis outhit Winnipeg 53-33.
Despite all the hitting and bodies flying all over the place at times on Monday, there were almost none of the scrums and scrapping that have permeated other series. The only injury was to linesman Andrew Smith, who had to be helped off the ice early in the third period and was replaced by backup referee Chris Schlenker.