It seems that a little home cooking was just what the Winnipeg Jets needed to get back on track.
After getting demolished in two games in St. Louis, the Jets regained control of their battle with the Blues thanks to a 5-3 win at Canada Life Centre Wednesday night to take a 3-2 series lead.
Kyle Connor and Mason Appleton each recorded three points as the home team won for their fifth straight game in the series to push the Blues to the brink of elimination.
But the Jets finished the game without Mark Scheifele after he left the game following the first period.
“Really proud of the effort,” said Jets captain Adam Lowry. “I think sometimes when you lose your number one centre, you lose a key piece to your lineup, there can be a bit of a sag and an emotional letdown. But I thought the guys really rallied around it.”
Scheifele took a couple of big hits in the opening frame before leaving the game after 20 minutes. But Jets head coach Scott Arniel didn’t give a lot of insight into his status going forward with only 48 hours until a key Game 6 on Friday.
“We’ll wait and see here,” said Arniel. “We’ll just wait and see where we’re at. See how he is later tonight and see tomorrow.”
Arniel was visibly upset on the bench with the officials to start the second period.
“There’s some things that have been going in this series and that was a repeat of what we’ve seen before,” said Arniel. “A player leaving his feet and then hitting the player in a very unprotected spot. Like hitting him, in a sense, almost blindsiding him. Not happy how the call was made, a two minute minor. Not even looking at it is what I was upset about, and it’s something we have talked to the league about for five games.”
After Scheifele left the game, Vladislav Namestnikov was elevated to the top line and he scored a goal in the second period and also added one assist.
“It was unbelievable,” Arniel said. “We certainly needed it big time and that’s been our group. Our group has had to step up all year long with injuries and that was a huge for us to go into that role.”
“You always want to contribute,” said Namestnikov. “But as I said, hockey is not all about scoring. Sometimes you have to defend as well. So yes, you’d like to contribute and I put a lot of pressure on myself to do that and good thing that one went in today.”
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It’s the first time the Jets have a won a game after a loss in a playoff series since the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs. The victory also ended the Jets four-game losing streak in Game 5’s that dated all the way back to the 2018 playoffs.
The Jets held the Blues to just nine shots on net in the first two periods as St. Louis finished with just 19 shots.
“We played on our toes,” Lowry said. “We played fast. We were making simple but effective plays and Arny (Arniel) did a really good job of going through the breakdowns in Game 3 and 4 and just when you review those things, and you kinda see a lot of it is self-inflicted.”
The Jets had five different goal scorers with Connor, Namestnikov, Nino Niederreiter, Dylan DeMelo, and Adam Lowry all getting on the scoresheet.
“I thought it was, throughout the lineup, it was outstanding,” said Arniel. “I thought that everybody stepped up.
“Great first and we were physical, we were battling, competing and doing all the things we had 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.”
The Jets got exactly the start they needed, opening the scoring just 1:23 into the game.
The play started when a forechecking Appleton was clipped by a high-stick in the St. Louis zone but no call was made. As he got to his knees behind the net, he kicked a loose puck to Scheifele who then fed Connor in front for a wrister that beat Jordan Binnington high over the glove.
But it didn’t take the Blues long to respond. Just 2:19 after Connor scored, Nathan Walker finished off a long St. Louis shift in the Jets’ end by tipping a Colton Parayko point shot through Hellebuyck.
The intensity was ratcheted up a few notches when Brayden Schenn ran over Scheifele in the Winnipeg end, resulting in a Jets power play.
A minute into that man advantage, Gabriel Vilardi, playing in his first game since Mar. 23, was called for interference in the neutral zone but Oskar Sundqvist also went to the box for embellishment.
In the end, the Jets did not cash in, but not long after the Blues returned to even strength, Winnipeg regained the lead when Niederreiter tipped a Dylan Samberg point shot past Binnington at the 8:39 mark.
There was some more rough stuff at the midway point after the Blues took exception to the Jets banging away at a puck that Binnington had covered in the crease. St. Louis would wind up with a power play after the dust settled but Winnipeg killed it off.
The Jets got to the end of the period with the 2-1 lead intact, the first time all series they had led after 20 minutes, but had to play the rest of the game without Schiefele, who got hurt late in the period.
Winnipeg got their second power play look of the night early in the second when Justin Faulk was called for slashing but they couldn’t cash in, their 12th failed power play in 14 tries in the series.
To make matters worse, the Blues leveled the score at the 6:06 mark when Jimmy Snuggerud beat Hellebuyck with a low wrister in transition that Hellebuyck likely should have stopped.
Winnipeg got just the break they needed at the 11:05 mark of the period. DeMelo’s shot from the point appeared to be heading wide before it hit the backside of Parayko and trickled into the net, reminiscent of a Blues goal in Game 4 that banked in off the backside of Neal Pionk.
The Jets got a huge insurance goal with just over a minute to go in the second. Appleton took a pass from Pionk and skated over the St. Louis blue line before sending a pass to Connor streaking into the zone. He then sent it over to Namestnikov, and while he didn’t get everything on his shot it fooled Binnington and gave the Jets a 4-2 lead after 40 minutes.
Winnipeg also had a 22-9 edge in shots on goal through two periods.
The Jets went into lockdown mode in the third, sitting on their lead and doing everything they could to ensure they got to the finish line.
With 4:06 remaining and the score still 4-2, the Blues pulled Binnington and less than a minute later, just like he did in Game 1, Lowry scored into the empty net to seal the win.
Walker would add his second of the night with 51.4 seconds left but it wouldn’t be enough as the Jets improved to 3-0 on home ice this postseason.
Hellebuyck stopped 16 shots in the win, while Binnington made 21 saves in defeat.
The Jets will try to end the series Friday night in St. Louis. The action begins just after 7 p.m. with pregame coverage on 680 CJOB starting at 5 p.m.
