The St. Louis Blues were the hottest team in the NHL over the final month of the regular season, but the Winnipeg Jets have doused them in cold water through the first two games of their Western Conference first-round series.
The Blues are staring at a 2-0 deficit heading into Game 3 of the best-of-seven matchup on Thursday night in St. Louis.
“We’re going to go home, we’re going to be in front of our frenzied crowd and we’re going to have an opportunity to hold serve,” St. Louis coach Jim Montgomery said.
The Blues went 13-2-1 from March 15 through the end of the regular season, allowing them to beat out the Calgary Flames, Vancouver Canucks and Utah Hockey Club for the final wild-card spot from the West.
Things were setting up well for St. Louis through two periods of Game 1 on Saturday in Winnipeg. The Blues took a 3-2 lead into the third but then surrendered the tying goal to Alex Iafallo at the 9:18 mark and the goal-ahead goal to Kyle Connor with 1:36 remaining. Adam Lowry sealed the Jets’ 5-3 win by adding an empty-netter with 53 seconds left.
The score was knotted at 1-1 heading into the third period of Game 2 on Monday, but Connor again scored the go-ahead goal, this time at 1:43, and the Jets held on for the 2-1 win.
“As a group, we’re not happy to be down 2-0, but the games are really close,” Montgomery said. “There’s not much separation going on right now. We need to make a separation. We need to find another level when we go home so we can end up on top by a goal.”
Jimmy Snuggerud scored the lone goal for the Blues in Game 2 while playing on the top line with Robert Thomas and Pavel Buchnevich. The rookie, at 20 years, 324 days old, became the third St. Louis player in the past 15 years to score his first career playoff goal at the age of 20 or younger, joining Thomas (19 years, 303 days in 2019) and Robby Fabbri (20 years, 90 days in 2016).
The Jets, who won the Presidents’ Trophy for the best record in the NHL during the regular season (56-22-4), held an optional practice on Tuesday with about a half-dozen players in attendance.
One player who earned the day off was veteran center Mark Scheifele, who has two goals and three assists through the first two games of the series, despite sitting in the penalty box for a combined 12 minutes.
“That’s your best players playing at the top of their game. That’s what (Scheifele) has done,” Jets coach Scott Arniel said. “You can see that he’s taken on that challenge. He’s going head to head against their best player, whether it’s defending or whether he’s (on) offense with the puck. He has a strong skill set that we have seen in all 82 games, and now he’s taken it into this playoff series.”
Connor has two goals and two assists. The two game-winners make him just the fourth player in the past 20 years to score the game-winning goal in consecutive games to open the playoffs, joining Nicklas Lidstrom of the Detroit Red Wings (2007), Nathan MacKinnon of the Colorado Avalanche (2021) and Chris Kreider of the New York Rangers (2023).
“When your best players are your best players, that certainly goes a long way towards helping you win hockey games,” Arniel said.
