With a slim one game advantage in the series and the ability to eliminate their opposition, the Winnipeg Jets had a tall task on Friday night when they faced a St. Louis Blues squad that has won 14 straight game at the Enterprise Center in Missouri. Then you add that the True Northers have never won a Game 6 contest and the injury to top center Mark Scheifele, the odds seemed stacked against them.
The return of speedy winger Nikolaj Ehlers could provide a much needed boost to the visiting Jets, but they will likely have to depend on a blue collar effort to grind out a win versus the hot Blues. Then simmering just below the surface, there is a lot of animosity between the Central Division rivals and there is the potential that blows up after Winnipeg head coach Scott Arniel called attention to the unsportsmanlike behaviour displayed by St. Louis in the series.
Alright, time to see how things played out……
GAME RECAP
The Jets started the game off well and were able to control the puck for most of the opening 5 minutes of the match, allowing newly returned Nikolaj Ehlers an early scoring chance from the right face-off circle. Things unfortunately took a negative turn when the Blues were able to open up the scoring on their first offensive zone shift. St. Louis was able to set up a 1 timer from the high slot and while the player didn’t get all of the shot, it still allowed the puck to knuckle into Winnipeg’s net as Connor Hellebuyck was totally screened by multiple people. The True Northers took a time out to review the replay and while there certainly was a level of interference on Bucky, they made the correct choice not to challenge as I doubt the NHL would have over-turned the play (goalie interference reviews are 0-3 in the post-season). STL 1-0. After this, the hometown Blues took over the 1st period with the help of a couple powerplay opportunities and that led to Hellebuyck making a bunch of big stops to keep the score the same when the teams went to their dressing rooms for the intermission.
Winnipeg started the 2nd off well, when a misplay at St. Louis’ blueline gave Morgan Barron the chance to split the defense before making a nice move to beat Jordan Binnington with a backhand to the roof of the net. Unfortunately, because of the back & forth play at the blueline, Mason Appleton was slightly offside and a Blues’ challenge got the goal pulled off the scoreboard. The Jets continued to control the play in the middle frame with a couple man-advantage looks. On the second of these, a scramble in front of Binnington saw Cole Perfetti jam home his 1st ever NHL goal to knot up the game on the powerplay. TIE 1-1. Winnipeg had a great chance to take the lead when they broke out on a 2 on 1 that saw Ehlers take the shot and try to knock home his own rebound. At the mid-point of the game, the Jets had evened up the game with the score and shot totals being equal…..but that was about to change. An awful stretch of hockey by Winnipeg saw St. Louis take a stranglehold of the game with 3 goals in 2:06. First, Josh Morrissey & Dylan DeMelo both pursued the puck behind the Jets’ goal line and this let the uncovered Blues’ player to get a 1 time goal from the low slot. STL 2-1. Just 53 seconds later, the opposition had a 1 on 1 rush on the True Northers that saw Bucky whiff on an easily stoppable wrist shot from the top of the right face-off circle. STL 3-1. Not done there, St. Louis continued to attack and Hellebucyk made a top-notch save on a wrap around attempt, but Winnipeg was unable to clear their end and eventually a point shot found a path through 5 bodies and somehow ended up in the back of the net. STL 4-1. The Jets were then able to successfully kill off a penalty, but the Blues added to their lead when Luke Schenn & DeMelo couldn’t complete a simple pass in their own end, turning the puck over and allowing another high slot shot to beat Hellebuyck. STL 5-1. A dumb penalty by Logan Stanley gave St. Louis another PP look, but once again Winnipeg was able to kill it off and enter the final frame down by a huge margin.
To be honest here, I really didn’t watch a lot of the 3rd period, so I am not sure if the Jets actually controlled play like the shots indicate (12-4 WPG) or whether that was more a result of the Blues sitting back to defend their healthy lead. Winnipeg was able to add another PP goal for the night when the 2nd unit capitalized with a Nino Niederreiter marker 9 minutes into the 3rd. STL 5-2. My prediction of the final period devolving into a penalty-fest came true, as the officials called a total of 15 infractions. Hopefully if something really interesting occurred in this frame, some of the Arctic Ice Hockey members can fill in the details in the Comment section because I got nothing else to say.
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FINAL SCORE: ST. LOUIS 5 WINNIPEG JETS 2
FINAL STATS
Shots: 27-23 STL / Hits: 40-36 WPG / Face-Offs: 58.5% WPG / x Goals: 4.16 WPG – 3.05 STL /
MoneyPuck’s Deserve to Win: 63% WPG / High-Medium Danger Scoring Chances: 15 to 7 STL
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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: Winnipeg Jets vs. St. Louis Blues – Friday May 2 2025 – MoneyPuck.com
NaturalStatTrick: Winnipeg Jets @ St Louis Blues, 2025-05-02
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BOJA’s Observations:
- The home team continues to win every game in this series, so that should give the True North fans some hope as we head back to Manitoba for the deciding Game 7 match. Unfortunately, injuries and concerns about the play of some of the Jets will likely hamper any real optimism.
- So many bad performances…….Connor Hellebuyck continues to let in one very stoppable goal every playoff game and is not saving screened shots at the same percentage he typically did in the regular season. Possibly at the next trade deadline, the GM should be looking to add goaltending depth for future playoff runs, because Bucky has been pulled in every road post-season game.
- Dylan DeMelo looked lost out there for most of the night and the lack of effort after his defensive end turnover was brutal. Talk about giving up before the final horn sounds.
- Luke Schenn & Logan Stanley are two lumbering negatives on Winnipeg’s backend. Schenn was tied for the team worst -3 plus/minus rating, while Big Stan was -1 in sheltered 3rd pairing minutes.
- Man, is Dylan Samberg good. The only defensive pairings to have a plus 50% expected goals rating involved the big American. His ability to stifle zone entries is amazing, too bad he always has to prop up his playing partners as he probably would have more to give if he had an equally talented player along side him.
- At 5 on 5, the Jets top six was able to out-perform the opposition, but the True Northers’ bottom six got eaten alive.
- To try and end with some positives…..Winnipeg didn’t allow a powerplay goal against, which is something the team struggled with so far in the playoffs. On the flip side, while the Jets’ powerplay didn’t look that great, they did get a couple goals with the man-advantage and that will be important to the team’s success if they can manage to move beyond Round 1.
Well, back to the drawing board and the friendly confines of the Canada Life Centre for that all important deciding match. At least whoever meets up in Round 2 will be equally tired, as the Dallas Stars-Colorado Avalanche series will be playing their Game 7 tonight.
UP NEXT: St. Louis Blues @ Winnipeg Jets – Sunday, May 4th @ 6 pm Central
