After coming back from one goal deficits on multiple occasions, the Winnipeg Jets managed to pull out a win in Game 1 to get an early advantage in NHL playoff series against the St. Louis Blues. Hoping to play their style of shutdown hockey for the full 60 minutes in Game 2, the True Northers were looking for the boisterous White Out crowd at the Canada Life Centre to propel them to another victory.
Here is how I saw the action on Monday night…..
GAME RECAP
When the puck was dropped to kick off the contest, the visiting St. Louis Blues once again started off with a strong forecheck & physical play and that helped them to get the first couple of scoring chances. After being out-shot 4-2 in the opening 5 minutes, the Winnipeg Jets were able to regain control of the puck possession when they got the first powerplay of the game. While the man-advantage units couldn’t solve the Blues’ Jordan Binnington, it did allow them to tilt the ice in their favour for a the middle part of the frame. A huge bodycheck by Logan Stanley on the Blues’ Jordan Kyrou got the Canada Life Centre fans to their feet and then Winnipeg’s Connor Hellebuyck kept them there when he stoned a quality look from the slot. Another Jets’ powerplay opportunity saw Mason Appleton being robbed on a glorious net-side scoring look, but the True Northers dropped to 0 for 2 on the night. Fortunately for the White Out crowd, the Jets kept on the attack post-PP when Dylan DeMelo sent a stretch pass to Mark Scheifele at the opposition’s blueline. The Jets’ top center dropped his shoulder and drove hard to the net with Blues’ forward Jimmy Snuggerud on his back. While #55 was unable to beat the tender on the rush, the rebound bounced out & off the St. Louis’ forward’s skate and into the net. WPG 1-0. Another big bodycheck in the game, this time by defenseman Josh Morrissey on rookie Snuggerud, but the Blues had a chance to get back in the game with a late powerplay. St. Louis went 2 for 3 with the man-advantage in Game 1 and had a great look to add to that on a slot shot, but Dylan Samberg was able to clear the rebound just in time. Unfortunately, time didn’t click off the clock fast enough and a Snuggerud wrister from the high face-off circle beat Hellebuyck over the blocker to knot the contest with 0.8 seconds left. TIE 1-1.
The 2nd period saw the Winnipeg Jets clamp down defensively, limiting St. Louis to just 0.18 expected goals in the period. The Jets continued to play physical with another booming hit by Big Stan and Appleton was once again stoned on a quality scoring opportunity on a Winnipeg 3 on 2. Midway through the middle frame, the Blues received another powerplay opportunity after a Scheifele slashing penalty but our hometown club had their best short-handed performance of the post-season to completely shut down the opposition on the PK. Late in the period, scoring looks were few & far between but when Stanley got a little too excited while defending the back boards, the official decided his 4th or 5th crosscheck was penalty worthy. The CLC crowd was tense that the home team would fall behind late in the period, but another solid PK effort with big plays from Alex Iafallo & Samberg helped keep the score the same as the franchises entered the final period.
With the game knotted up, the win was up for grabs and Winnipeg came out of the dressing rooms hungry. The Jets’ top line dumped the puck into the Blues’ zone and Scheifele won the battle along the back boards before ringing the puck along the boards to Luke Schenn at the point. With no lane for a shot, the burly defenseman sent the puck wide of the net, allowing Scheifele to bang it behind the net for Cole Perfetti. Somehow St. Louis’ defenders forgot about Kyle Connor as he slipped into the low slot and young Fetti quickly hooked up with the sniper for a big goal. WPG 2-1. The Blues started to try to open things up and the teams traded scoring chances with Adam Lowry being shut down from prime scoring territory and then Bucky getting in the way of a shot by Robert Thomas that was otherwise labeled for the top corner. The officials attempted to give St. Louis once last chance with another questionable penalty on Winnipeg, but a couple of blocks on the PK left the Blues with no shots on goal. Even though there was still half the frame remaining, the Jets put on a clinic of shutdown defense by clogging up the neutral zone and forcing the opposition to dump the puck in. With Hellebuyck often stopping the puck for his defensemen, this allowed clean zone exits from the Peggers and denied St. Louis the opportunity to get set up in the offensive zone. With less than 2 minutes left, the Blues pulled their goalie for the extra attacker and while that did allow them to finally gain the Jets’ zone, the Winnipeg defenders kept them to the perimeter of the ice and Bucky wasn’t required to make any more stops.
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FINAL SCORE: WINNIPEG JETS 2 ST. LOUIS BLUES 1
FINAL STATS
Shots: 22-22 TIE / Hits: 33-29 WPG / Face-Offs: 53.7% WPG / x Goals: 3.42 WPG – 1.57 STL /
MoneyPuck’s Deserve to Win: 72% WPG / High-Medium Danger Scoring Chances: 15 to 3 WPG
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SCORING SUMMARY from ESPN
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SHOT CHART from MoneyPuck
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ADVANCED SKATER STATS from MoneyPuck
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GOALIE STATS from ESPN & MoneyPuck
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If you would like to dive deeper into the game’s stats, follow the links below to the game pages:
MoneyPuck: St. Louis Blues vs. Winnipeg Jets – Monday April 21 2025 – MoneyPuck.com
NaturalStatTrick: St Louis Blues @ Winnipeg Jets, 2025-04-21
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BOJA’s Observations:
- A big win by the Winnipeg Jets after playing a complete game on Monday, making MoneyPuck give them an 87.5% chance of advancing to the second round of the NHL Playoffs. There are still things to clean up (PK & PP), but our club is making it difficult for the opposition at even strength so far.
- Well, I called for a good outing by Connor Hellebuyck in Game 2 and the soon-to-be Vezina Trophy winner delivered. Turned aside 21 of 22 shots faced for a .955 save percentage and a +0.57 Goals Saved Above Expected. The tender was also way more adept at handling St. Louis dump ins last night, greatly helping Winnipeg have a high percentage of clean zone exits.
- It is early in the playoffs, but so far the Jets’ top line is impressing on the scoreboard. While their advanced numbers may not be that great, they have been able to find ways to beat the opposing goaltender. Mark Scheifele had another fantastic performance, showing some feistiness in his play as he has been involved in 5 out of 7 Winnipeg post-season goals (71.4%). His favourite linemate isn’t doing bad either, as Kyle Connor has netted both game winning goals in the playoffs and has been involved in 57% of Jets’ goals. Early on, but Scheifele leads the NHL with 5 pts, while Connor is tied for 2nd with 4.
- The bottom six was excellent once again. The Adam Lowry unit was excellent in a shutdown role, getting 73.6% of the xG and the captain getting a team leading 0.967 individual xG rating in the contest. Linemates Mason Appleton (0.342 xG) and Brandon Tanev (0.397 xG) also had quality looks to score against the Blues last night. The patchwork 4th line was also solid in limited action (93.6%).
- I did find it interesting how coach Scott Arniel was using his players in Game 2. At the forward position, the head coach severely sheltered the 4th line (3:11) which allowed the combination of Kyle Connor–Mark Scheifele–Cole Perfetti to get 3:33 of icetime together and they did very well with it (75.2% xG). On defense, it was more of the same with Logan Stanley & Luke Schenn’s time together limited (8:39), allowing a filler pairing of Dylan Samberg & Schenn to dominate in 3:02 of icetime (93.5% xG).
- One final observation….not sure you picked up on the danger scoring chances in the stats above, but Winnipeg had a massive 15 to 3 advantage in the medium to high danger looks in Game 2. For the most part, both squads did well limiting high danger (2-1 WPG), but the real edge was in the medium range (13-2 WPG).
The Winnipeg Jets have swept the early home portion of their series with the St. Louis Blues and now get a two day break as the franchises travel to Missouri for Game 3. I don’t expected Jim Montgomery’s club to cave in despite the deficit, so the True Northers should be in for a couple more battles as they head out on the road. Lets hear your thoughts of the game and the True Northers’ performance so far in the playoffs. Have a great week!
UP NEXT: Winnipeg Jets @ St. Louis Blues – Thursday, April 24th @ 8:30 pm CST
