Winnipeg holds 2-1 series lead, but St. Louis has momentum after dominant Game 3 win
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ST. LOUIS — The Winnipeg Jets will try to put the frustrations of their last game behind them when they play the St. Louis Blues in Game 4 of the Western Conference First Round at Enterprise Center on Sunday (1 p.m. ET; FDSNMW, MAX, truTV, TBS, SN, TVAS, CBC).
The Jets lead the best-of-7 series 2-1 but struggled in every facet in a 7-2 loss to the Blues in Game 3 on Thursday. Winnipeg was down 2-0 3:11 into the first period, and never really got back into it. Center Adam Lowry said the key to getting back to their game is “execution, playing fast.”
“There are things they did really well that limited our ability to get to our transition, to get to our forecheck, allowed them to get on the body and turn pucks over and put us on our heels,” Lowry said. “I think as we saw in Winnipeg, when we get to our game, we’re efficient through the neutral zone, we’re good at turning pucks over and create a lot of zone time and really limit the chances. Watching Game 3 back, (they had) a lot of time and space through the neutral zone.
“We knew they were going to throw a lot of pucks at the net and it’s getting in shooting lanes, winning those 1-on-1 battles and winning the battles down low to stop the zone time they started to get. It starts in the defensive zone and leads offensively to us possessing the puck more, breaking out the puck more efficiently and getting to our forecheck.”
Meanwhile, the Blues are riding a wave of confidence off Thursday’s game. They know the Jets will probably adjust, and they’ll try to be ready for it.
“We are trying to stay ahead of it because that’s an excellent team that’s really well coached. You try and anticipate maybe things that will change, but the thing that’s really important for us is that we stay true to who we are, our identity, that attitude of being aggressive offensively and defensively,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery said. “The changes that we thought we would make (in Game 3), I don’t even know if they materialized. It was just more of an attitude that was different about us.”
Teams that have taken a 3-1 lead in a best-of-7 series in the Stanley Cup Playoffs have won the series 91 percent of the time (316-32). The Blues are 8-20 (.286) when trailing 2-1 in a series.
Here is a breakdown of Game 4:
Jets: Winnipeg has talked about getting out to good starts throughout the series and the lack of doing so hurt them badly in Game 3. That start has to be there in Game 4. “We need to try and get to our game quicker than they do, but I think the belief in this group is in the way we defend, the structure we have,” Lowry said. “We don’t have a (regular-season) record like we do without being able to bounce back, without coming into big games and rising to the occasion.”
Blues: St. Louis has gotten a bulk of its scoring from its top line, left wing Pavel Buchnevich, center Robert Thomas and right wing Jimmy Snuggerud. Buchnevich has six points (three goals, three assists) in three games, including his hat trick from Game 3. Thomas has five points (one goal, four assists) and Snuggerud two points (one goal, one assist). The Jets had a hard time stopping this line in Game 3, and the Blues will try to take advantage of home ice and last change with this group again.
🔹Ottawa Senators vs. Toronto Maple Leafs
🔹Florida Panthers vs. Tampa Bay Lightning
🔹Montreal Canadiens vs. Washington Capitals
🔹New Jersey Devils vs. Carolina Hurricanes
🔹St. Louis Blues vs. Winnipeg Jets
🔹Colorado Avalanche vs. Dallas Stars
🔹Minnesota Wild vs. Vegas Golden Knights
🔹Edmonton Oilers vs. Los Angeles Kings
Number to know: 2. Number of power-play goals the Blues have allowed, on 10 power-play opportunities, through the first three games against the Jets. Winnipeg came into the playoffs with the No. 1 power play in the regular season (28.9 percent).
What to look for: Can the Blues bring the confidence they gained in Game 3 into Sunday’s game? Will the Jets snap out of their power-play woes?
“We all knew we probably weren’t going to win all 16 in a row, and it was going to be a breeze, so it was a good chance for us to reset. We are playing a good team here that has won 13 in a row at home. It is obviously a great challenge and a tough building to play in, but I think it is something we can embrace. It is a great opportunity for us.” — Jets forward Morgan Barron
“Since 4 Nations (Face-Off), the belief in this group has raised significantly and it doesn’t matter if we’re down or up in a game, we have a big belief in this group that we can win hockey games. I think it’s comes a lot in this group over the last couple of months and you can kind of sense the difference in what we’re really believing in what we’re doing.” — Blues forward Oskar Sundqvist
Kyle Connor — Mark Scheifele — Alex Iafallo
Nino Niederreiter — Vladislav Namestnikov — Cole Perfetti
Morgan Barron — Adam Lowry — Mason Appleton
Brandon Tanev — David Gustafsson — Jaret Anderson-Dolan
Josh Morrissey — Dylan DeMelo
Dylan Samberg — Neal Pionk
Logan Stanley — Luke Schenn
Connor Hellebuyck
Eric Comrie
Scratched: Dominic Toninato, Haydn Fleury, Colin Miller, Ville Heinola
Injured: Nikolaj Ehlers (lower body), Gabriel Vilardi (upper body), Rasmus Kupari (concussion)
Pavel Buchnevich — Robert Thomas — Jimmy Snuggerud
Jake Neighbours — Brayden Schenn — Jordan Kyrou
Mathieu Joseph — Oskar Sundqvist — Zack Bolduc
Alexey Toropchenko — Radek Faksa — Nathan Walker
Cam Fowler — Colton Parayko
Philip Broberg — Justin Faulk
Nick Leddy — Tyler Tucker
Jordan Binnington
Joel Hofer
Scratched: Alexandre Texier, Ryan Suter, Matthew Kessel
Injured: Dylan Holloway (lower body)
Status report
Vilardi will be a game-time decision; the forward wore a regular jersey at practice on Saturday but was skating as an extra. However, he did blend in on power-play drills. … DeMelo will return after missing Game 3 with an illness and replace Miller, a defenseman. … Barron and Tanev will flip lines while Gustafsson will slide into the middle. … Joseph is expected to play after being a healthy scratch the past two games and replace Texier, a forward. … Suter is expected to be a healthy scratch for a second straight game.
