The Winnipeg Jets got back into the win column and kept their slim playoff hopes alive by playing a complete game against the St. Louis Blues and helping Connor Hellebuyck win his fourth shutout of the season and seventh of his career, 3-0 tonight.
The win by the Jets extends the Blues losing streak to five.
It should have been a blow-out by the Jets, but Blues goalie, Carter Hutton came up huge more times than I cared to see. Nikolaj Ehlers, Andrew Copp, Shawn Matthias, Bryan Little, Blake Wheeler-all denied by the Blues back-up.
Captain Blake Wheeler notched two tonight, including the game-winner, which happened to be the only goal of the game (and his 18th of the season) until the Jets had the game in the bag late in the third and put in two back-to-back empty-netters; the first by Bryan Little (his 18th) after showing some hustle by catching up to and stealing the puck from Alex Pietrangelo before tucking it behind the gal line, then Wheeler chipped in his second of the game.
Every player in a blue sweater contributed to the victory tonight. Even though one would usually say, "the score doesn't tell the whole story," this score actually did. Although Hutton gave the Blues a chance early and often, the Jets outplayed the Blues and were "owed" a couple of scores because of the back-stopper; so, yeah, 3-0 (empty-netters or not) sounds good to me.
Everyone seemed to had a legitimate chance to score as blasts were coming from Dustin Byfuglien, Jacob Trouba (back from his two-game suspension), Mathieu Perreault, Josh Morrissey, Patrik Laine, who was fed twice by Mark Scheifele in vein, and even Chris Thorburn had a chance in front of the net, but all the boys needed was the captain's one-timer, power-play goal, from the blue-line and to then shut it down; which they did, admirably.
The Blues had some moderate success in the neutral zone, but overall, the Jets smothered the lanes and suffocated the them. Protected by a staunch and determined Jets defence-core, the Blues were stymied all evening.
After losing a heart-breaking, yet expected 6-5 loss to the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday night, the Jets needed to pull themselves up and hope to move on and make the rest of the season count for something.
I was worried about this one. I was worried that after such a long lay-off of seven days, any momentum would be lost.
Well, the Jets didn't exactly lose the ability to play well, they just waited until the third period.
Although Laine scored his 31st, to remain tied with Austen Matthews for the NHL rookie goal-scoring lead, he could not work his magic, nor could Scheifele, to give a late-game miracle to the people behind the glass.
But, the Jets come away victorious yet again against St. Louis and are now 4-0 against the Blues this season. The Jets now retain 64 points and are, remarkably, only four points out of the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference that`s currently held by the Los Angeles Kings, who have 68 points. Forget the Flames and their 74 points. They`re on a six-game winning streak (oh, how I pray for the Jets to go on a five-to-eight game winning streak) and are probably going to take a Pacific divisional spot in their top three. They're gone. In which case we then have to focus on Nashville as well as St. Louis and L.A. The Jets pretty much have to achieve the impossible and go on a streak around the 14-4 (or 13-3-1 or whatever) mark. The other teams could folly. Its possible, and I'm hoping, ney, counting on it.
If Nashville stumbles and St. Louis continues to disappoint, while Dallas can be kept at bay, the Jets could slip on the Cinderella slipper for this post-season. But they have to beat some better, much better, teams coming up. They have to. We're coming down the stretch.
It's a steep, steep hill. Can the Jets sustain?
Colorado is next. Then San Jose and Pittsburgh. Some of that home-ice advantage would be cool right about now, 'doncha think?
