With an opportunity to finish off the Blues in St. Louis, the Winnipeg Jets needed to avoid a repeat of the rough road performances that took them down in Games 3 and 4 in Missouri.
Instead, it was like watching a movie you’ve seen before as a terrible stretch in the second period doomed the Jets in a 5-2 loss that sends the series to a winner-take-all Game 7 Sunday in Winnipeg.
It wasn’t exactly the start that the Jets were looking for as the Blues opened the scoring 6:05 into the game thanks to a weird one.
Philip Broberg partially fanned on a one-timer in the slot but the off-speed shot knuckled into the net as Connor Hellebuyck was bumped into. Pavel Buchnevich was in the crease as the shot was being taken but didn’t make contact with Hellebuyck until Dylan Samberg pushed Buchnevich, so the Jets decided not to challenge the play for goalie interference.
The Blues had two power play looks in the first to try and grow their lead but Hellebuyck stood tall, making another sprawling paddle save late in the period to keep his team within one.
Winnipeg also had a power play in the first but failed to generate any quality looks, which was the case for the period as a whole as they were outshot 8-2 by the Blues in the opening 20 minutes.
But they came out flying in the second period and thought they had tied the game less than a minute in.
Justin Faulk turned the puck over just outside the Blues zone, leading to a great net drive by Morgan Barron that he finished off by roofing it past Jordan Binnington. But the Jets were offside on the play so a coach’s challenge and a quick review took the goal off the board.
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The Jets continued to push early in the period, leading to a power play that they took advantage of. Not long after winning the faceoff, the puck wound up on the stick of Cole Perfetti down low. He tried to centre the puck but it hit off a Blues’ skate and back to him, leading to a scramble and Perfetti knocking the puck out of the air and into the net for his first career playoff goal.
Winnipeg was definitely the better team for the first half of the period, but everything quickly unraveled over the second half of the frame.
With roughly nine minutes left, Broberg carried the puck into the Jets’ zone and below the goal line before stopping on a dime and passing the puck in front to Nathan Walker, who was parked in front of the crease while surrounded by Jets players who did not cover him. Walker knocked it home to make it 2-1.
Just 53 seconds later, disaster struck as Brayden Schenn beat Hellebuyck with an unscreened wrist shot off the rush to make it 3-1, a bad goal for the Hart Trophy finalist to allow.
The pile-on continued just 1:13 later when Cam Fowler beat Hellebuyck from the point through a maze of bodies to make it 4-1, and according to Sportsnet Stats, Hellebuyck became the third goalie in NHL history to allow four or more goals in seven straight road playoff games.
The Blues weren’t done there, making it 5-1 with 3:03 to go in the second. The Jets turned the puck over in their own end, leading to an Alexey Toropchenko shot from the slot that beat Hellebuyck, capping off a run of four goals in 5:23 that sunk Winnipeg’s hopes.
Winnipeg was outshot 10-0 over the final ten minutes of the period as the game completely tilted against them, leading to Hellebuyck being pulled to start the third, the third time in as many games in St. Louis in the series that the likely Vezina Trophy winner did not finish the game.
Like the Jets did in Game 3, the Jets scored a garbage-time power play goal in the third period as Nino Niederreider banged home a loose puck in the crease at the 8:54 mark.
Desperate for a late push, the Jets pulled Eric Comrie for an extra attacker with 4:28 to go and 28 seconds later Robert Thomas was called for high-sticking, giving the Jets a 6-on-4 that they couldn’t take advantage of as the Blues killed off the penalty and got to the finish line with the 5-2 win.
Hellebuyck picked up the loss after allowing five goals on 23 shots in 40 minutes of action. In three games in St. Louis, he surrendered 16 goals on 66 shots. Comrie made four saves in relief.
Binnington picked up the win, his 14th straight on home ice dating back to the regular season, turning aside 21 shots.
It will all come down to Game 7 Sunday evening in Winnipeg, which will be the second Game 7 in franchise history after the Jets beat Nashville in the second round in 2018.
It will also be the first NHL Game 7 to ever be played in the city as the original Jets never hosted one, playing in two Game 7’s on the road. The Jets did host a WHA Game 7 in 1977, beating the San Diego Mariners 7-3 in the deciding game of their quarterfinal series.
The action Sunday begins just after 6 p.m. with pregame coverage on 680 CJOB beginning at 4 p.m.
