A battle between a pair of Central Division franchises happened at the Canada Life Centre in Winnipeg last night….let’s find out how the Winnipeg Jets did against the St. Louis Blues.
The Jets opened up the game playing tight checking hockey, allowing them to get the first 5 shots on net in the match. The Blues’ Schenn tried to pick up his team by arranging a fight with Lowry, but while St. Louis did step up their play post-scrap, it ended up sparking Winnipeg’s offense instead. Speedy Ehlers raced up the ice to gain the offensive zone for the 2nd line, eventually allowing good looks from Iafallo & Pionk. The line kept up the pressure by cycling the puck around the zone before Ehlers set up Monahan for a quick low slot shot to give the Jets a 1-0 lead 9 minutes in. Less than two minutes later, Vilardi’s forecheck frees up the puck behind the Blues’ net, resulting in a couple chances including a point blast from Dillon that was labelled in the top corner. St. Louis took only 30 seconds to respond though, as Buchnevich was able to bang in a rebound to make it 2 to 1. Winnipeg added a another marker when Connor skated up the left wing to snipe a shot far-side, giving the Jets a comfortable lead despite the visitor’s getting the better scoring chances (see MoneyPuck’s shot chart below).
First Period MoneyPuck Stats: Score: 3 to 1 for the Jets, shots 13 to 11 for the Jets, 66% Deserve To Win for the Blues, Expected Goals – all situations (1.28-0.64 STL), & 5 on 5 (1.28-0.64 STL)
Winnipeg started the middle frame out well, creating many chances to add to their lead while Brossoit was denying St. Louis on there more dangerous attempts. The Blues were able to get the next goal when Connor failed to support Schmidt, allowing a forechecker to strip the puck from the defender and send the puck to the crease area for Saad to bang home. With the game now a lot tighter, the teams traded chances for the remainder of the period, with Iafallo clearly getting the home team’s best chance (intercepts a pass in prime slot territory only for Hofer to flash a glove to snatch the puck before it could find twine). MoneyPuck’s shot chart shows that our squad created a bunch of dangerous scoring opportunities, but it also shows that the Blues added a couple more high-danger shots on Brossoit.
After Two Periods MoneyPuck Stats: Score: 3 to 2 for the Jets, shots 27 to 26 for the Blues, 63% Deserve to Win for the Blues, Expected Goals – all situations (2.42-1.73 STL) & 5 on 5 (2.39-1.68 STL)
The 3rd period saw the teams play in all situations (Jets PP, Blues PP, 5 on 5, & 4 on 4) in the opening 10 minutes. Winnipeg got a bit lucky that the Blues’ Bolduc didn’t tie the game up early in the frame when he rang a shot solidly off the crossbar, but both Brossoit & Hofer made quality saves to keep the score the same. As the game neared the midway point of the period, the Jets put back-to-back offensive cycle shifts that culminated in Iafallo banging home a rebound off the back-boards to give Winnipeg the 4-2 lead. St. Louis pulled the goalie very early, giving them almost 4 minutes with the extra attacker, but even the officials giving them a late PP couldn’t help them solve Brossoit again. MoneyPuck’s shot chart shows both squads did a poor job of protecting the low slot in this match, but our Jets came out with their 4th win in a row.
After Three PeriodsMoneyPuck Stats: 52% Deserve to Win for the Blues, Expected Goals – all situations (3.68-2.67 STL) & 5 on 5 (2.80-2.48 STL)
FINAL SCORE: WINNIPEG JETS 4 ST. LOUIS BLUES 2
SHOTS: ST. LOUIS BLUES 38 WINNIPEG JETS 32
Game Observations:
- A stellar outing from Laurent Brossoit against the Blues. He faced 38 shots, allowed 2 goals against while putting up a .947 save percentage and saving 1.86 goals above average in the contest.
- The Winnipeg Jets have three of their forward lines playing Rick Bowness’ hockey, but the top line is looking more like it did under Paul Maurice. Despite outscoring St. Louis 2 to 1, the Mark Scheifele line finished with just 14.7% of expected goals… a trend that has become all too common lately.
- The coaching staff may have stumbled onto a couple new line combinations though. The recently formed Nikolaj Ehlers/Sean Monahan/Alex Iafallo unit has played very well together and last night was no different. They combined for 4 shots on net, 2 goals & 3 assists, and 82.3% of expected goals. The 4th line of Cole Perfetti/Vladislav Namestnikov/Morgan Barron also looked good in their 2nd game together, directing 6 shots on the Blues’ tender and getting 73.5% of expected goals.
- The Adam Lowry line bounced back after a couple poor games and ended up with 69.7% of expected goals, but they couldn’t beat Joel Hofer on any of their 9 shots. Another quality scrap by the Jets’ captain, but I am not sure I saw the point of the early game tilt from a Winnipeg stand point.
- Defenseman Josh Morrissey has been doing his best Wayne Gretzky impersonation lately, picking up 11 assists in the past 5 games, including a pair against the Blues. Winnipeg’s best defender is now on pace for 66 points this season (would be 2nd best total of his career, after last season’s 76 pts).
With the Dallas Stars falling to the Colorado Avalanche last night, the Winnipeg Jets are now tied with the Stars at the top of the Central Division (with games in hand too). And as fate would have it, those two franchises will square off in a couple days to see who can grab sole possession of 1st place. Should be a real test for the Jets and hopefully they will show up with their “A” game.
NEXT GAME: Winnipeg Jets @ Dallas Stars – Thursday, February 29th @ 7:00 pm Central
The March 8th trade deadline is inching ever closer and Winnipeg has only 4 games to play before any potential acquisitions are off the table for the season. Will Chevy and his staff make another move or will they stand pat? We’ll just have to wait & see.
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