Kyle Connor had a goal and two assists while the Winnipeg jets eliminated the visit of St. Louis Blues 5-3 in match 5 of their first round series of the West Conference on Wednesday evening.
The jets lead the best 3-2 series towards match 6 Friday in St. Louis.
Vladislav Nametnikov and Nino Niederreiter had each a goal and a decisive pass, Mason Appleton collected three assists and Connor Hellebuyck made 16 stops for the jets, which bounded unilateral defeats in Games 3 and 4 in Saint-Louis.
Nathan Walker scored two goals, Jimmy Snuggerud scored in his 12th NHL match and Jordan Binnington made 21 stops for the Blues, the second joker team of the West Conference.
The jets scored three consecutive goals after Snuggerud equaled it to 2 with a shot from the wrist of the right rush circle, sliding the washer between Hellebuyck and the nearby post at 6:06 am from the second period.
“Not only did we defend well, but I thought we attacked them and that we had some sort of sections where we really poured it and that we do what we do best,” said Appleton. “We pre-flown very hard, we recovered washers. We made a lot of plans in their area O, we went up to the top of their goalkeeper. We did what we had to do to win this match.”
A point drawn by the defender of the jets Dylan Demelo drew the defender of St. Louis Colton Parayko and in his own net to put the jets in front of 3-2 at 11:05 am.
The blues extended the advance at 4-2 at 6:59 pm from the second when Namestnikov marked a flow of connor backfits to finish another rush.
Adam Lowry scored in an empty net with 3:13 remaining to do it 5-2.
Walker responded with the goal of cutting it at 5-3 with 53 seconds to play.
“We are on the next one,” said Blues coach Jim Montgomery. “I thought it was our worst match and it was their best match.”
“They were right about us tonight, but we have the match 6 at home and a work to do,” said St. Louis, Justin Faulk.
Winnipeg striker Gabriel Vilardi returned after having missed 15 games with an upper body injury, and he took the first shot before Connor scored the second for an advance from 1-0 to 1:23.
Appleton gave a kick to the washer of his teammate Mark Scheife behind the net of St. Louis, and Scheifele passed him in front of Connor for a single anial of the left hasd.
The blues quickly equaled it to 1 to 3:42.
Walker was parked in front of Hellebuyck when he switched to the Parayko wrist shooting at the top of the right circle.
Niederreiter stopped in front of Binnington and made a shot to put Winnipeg forward 2-1 at 8:39 a.m. from the first.
Scheifele did not return after the first period due to the effects at once by Brayden Schenn earlier in the period, causing an interference penalty on Schenn. Montgomery said after the match that Scheifele had been injured on a blow by Radek Faksa, not Schenn’s stroke that led to the penalty.
Scheifele finished second on the jets in goals (39) and points (87) during the regular season.
“It is difficult to lose your best player, but at the same time, we treated this all year round with injuries, so it is the mentality of the following man,” said Namestnikov about Scheifel.
– field level media