ST. LOUIS (AP) — Pierre-Luc Dubois scored twice and had an assist, Connor Hellebuyck made 29 saves and the Winnipeg Jets beat the St. Louis Blues 5-2 on Thursday night.
Kyle Connor, Blake Wheeler and Cole Perfetti also scored and Mark Scheifele added a pair of assists. The Jets have won three straight and seven of eight. They are 7-0-1 in their last eight games against St. Louis.
“Sometimes it just lines up like that,” Wheeler said about the success against St. Louis. “We just have a ton of respect for them and we come into games with them knowing how we have to play the game.”
Robert Thomas and Josh Leivo scored for the Blues, who lost for the fifth time in their last six games. Thomas Greiss, playing in back-to-back games for the first time this season, made 15 saves.
“If everybody doesn’t come to the rink ready to really compete and move your feet and do things right and be detailed and attentive, we’re not going to go anywhere,” Blues coach Craig Berube said. “That’s the bottom line. As a coaching staff we’re preparing them, we tell them what they need to do against this team, look for it, this is what you’ve got to do, but we can’t to go out and play for them. They’ve got to go out and play as a team, and right now, we’re not doing it.”
Dubois gave the Jets a 1-0 lead with 4:11 left in the first period, banking a one-timer from the slot off of Greiss’ stick.
“The last couple of games has been the best he’s played,” Jets coach Rick Bowness said. “He really has been strong on the puck. He’s been good defensively. Been great in the power play. His line has been outstanding for us."
Connor added to the lead 27 seconds into the second period after Michael Eyssimont’s pass got behind three defenders, creating the rush.
Wheeler’s power-play goal made it 3-0 at 4:06 of the second. Winnipeg has scored at least one power play goal in six straight games, going 8 for 20.
“I think we’re getting a lot of flex to the net,” Wheeler said. “There’s a lot more movement and that just makes us dangerous.”
It was the sixth time in the last nine penalty kills that St. Louis has allowed a goal. The Blues came into the game last in the NHL on the penalty kill at 64.9%.
Thomas got the Blues on the board with 1:24 left in the second, extending his points streak to five games.
Dubois halted the comeback, lifting a backhander that got past Greiss to make it 4-1 Jets at 7:39 of the third period.
“I felt like at times we were kind of just trying to survive out there,” Dubois said. “That’s when they got the momentum back. Shift after shift, they come at you.”
Leivo scored midway through the third for the Blues, and Perfetti iced the game for the Jets with an empty-net goal.
Jets forward Saku Maenalanen left with an upper body injury early in the first and did not return. Bowness said he would be re-evaluated when the team returns to Winnipeg.
“We’re mixing guys right wing, left wing … we had to move some guys around so I give our forwards a lot of credit,” Bowness said. “It was a gutsy effort by them.”
WELCOME BACK
The Jets reactivated defenseman Logan Stanley from the injured reserve. Stanley had missed the previous 18 games after suffering a lower-body injury in Winnipeg’s 4-0 win over St. Louis on Oct. 24.
NOTES: The Jets have scored five or more goals in six of their last seven games. … Blues F Pavel Buchnevich (lower body) and D Torey Krug (upper body) were scratched for the second-straight game. … The Jets reassigned F Dominic Toninato to the Manitoba Moose of the AHL.
UP NEXT
Jets: At Chicago on Friday night.
Blues: Host Colorado on Sunday.
___
More AP NHL: and
