JETS HEAD BACK TO ST. LOUIS FOR GAME 6
The Winnipeg Jets did exactly what they had to do on Wednesday night.
In Game 5 of the NHL’s Stanley Cup Divisional Playoff, the Jets scored five goals, took some terrible cheap shots, doled out some great hits, got tremendous goaltending from Connor Hellebuyck and beat the St. Louis Blues 5-3.
With the win, the Jets took a 3-2 series lead heading back to St. Louis on Friday night. The home team has won all five games in this series.
This one was a rock ‘em, sock ‘em affair, won by the Jets despite the fact they lost their offensive leader Mark Scheifele to what appeared to be a concussion, after he took a massive blind, cheap shot hit from Blues captain Brayden Schenn. Scheifele didn't have the puck, Schenn hit him while he was looking the other way, left his feet and went right for Scheifele's head. The hit happened at the 6:12 mark of the first period and although Scheifele finished the period, he did not return to the bench to start the second and was out for the game.
"I think you guys know, you lose your best player, you have to step up and I think we played some really good hockey when Scheif went down," said Mason Appleton. "I didn't see the headshot but you know, he's a guy who gets away with some higher hits. I know he left his feet. At the end of the day, you just Scheif's all right."
The length of time he misses is still to be determined.
Regardless, the Jets got a goal and two assists from Kyle Connor and sealed their third win of the post-season.
The first period of this thing was wild. Referees Kelly Sutherland and Jake Brenk were a disgrace to the sport. They missed calls, ignored calls, made calls they didn’t see, and worst of all, made up rules as they went along. It was perhaps the worst officiating performance I’ve witnessed at Canada Life Centre and I’ve witnessed a lot of bad officiating (more bad than good, frankly).
The Jets opened the scoring at 1:23 as Kyle Connor scored his fourth of the post-season. The Blues tied it at 3:42 and then Nino Niederreiter tipped home a shot by Dylan Samberg to give Winnipeg a 2-1 advantage.
That lead held up because Connor Hellebuyck made the greatest stick save in NHL history. I’m not sure he even saw the puck on the replay. It was uncanny, saved a goal and might have saved the game. He also made a sensational save off Colton Parayko with 30 seconds left in the period that might have been a game-saver, as well.
Credit to Hellebuyck and the Jets in the first 20 minutes. They survived the Blues and two worthless referees (the game would be better and fairer with no referees at all) and led by a goal.
The second period started with no Mark Scheifele. Still groggy from a dreadful blindside interference by Brayden Schenn, Scheifele’s absence was immediately felt as the Blues’ Jimmy Snuggerud took what a appeared to be a harmless shot from an odd angle that went between Hellebuyck’s legs. It was a cheapie, and it set the tone.
The Jets, who had outshot the Blues 14-7 overall by the midway point in the second period continued to pressure St. Louis, but Jordan Binnington was simply too good. Neal Pionk went in almost all alone and drilled a shot that Binnington picked out of the air. It was a brilliant stop.
But then the Jets got a cheapie of their own. Dylan DeMelo took a wrister from the point that Binnington blocked easily with his blocker. However, it deflected off Colton Parayko’s butt, changed direction and went in the net as the Jets’ 15th shot resulted in their third goal.
Later in the period, the Jets went tic-tac-toe – Appleton to Connor to Namestnikov. Suddenly it was 4-2 with just over a minute to play in the second period and the Jets had scored two in a row without Mark Scheifele.
"You always want to contribute," said Namestnikov. "Hockey is not all about scoring. You have to defend, as well. I love to put a lot of pressure on myself to do that."
In the second period, the Jets outshot St. Louis 14-4 (22-9 overall) and looked like a team that was destined to win this series.
The third period was a bit of a blur. Luke Schenn blocked a shot that was destined for a corner of the Jets net. Namestnikov led a rush, did everything right, faked out Binnington and missed the empty net (second empty net missed by the Jets, Perfetti had the other one).
The Blues pressured the Jets, firing off cheap shots left and right, and I’m not being critical of the Blues. If you can get away with cross-checking an opponent in the back in front of a referee who has been told to keep it close, then do it, I say. It’s why I’m still a proponent of fighting in hockey. If the officials aren’t going to protect the players, then the likes of Bob Probert, John Ferguson and Colton Orr should be there to do it. Wednesday night, the officiating was a fiasco, but to be fair, it’s been that way in just about every game in the post-season. The officiating is rotten every game, every night. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s a bloodbath in St. Louis on Friday.
The Jets sealed the deal when Adam Lowry scored into an empty net at 16:47. The Blues hacked and chopped their way to a third goal at 19:09, and by then Sutherland and Brenk had signed off on the entire evening. Those two weren’t going to call anything and probably shouldn’t have been paid for taking off the final two periods.
The Jets outshot St. Louis 26-19 and outhit them 44-38. The Blues won 57 per cent of the faceoffs.
The three stars were Kyle Connor, Vladislav Namestnikov and Dylan DeMelo. The best line of the night belonged to Connor with a goal, two assists, three points and a plus-three with one shot and one hit in 20 minutes and 43 seconds of ice time. Jaret Anderson-Dolan led the Jets with six hits in just 9:40 of ice time.
Game 6 in the series goes Friday night at 7 in St. Louis. It will be barnburner.
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