*Photo from Moose Jaw Today*
The Jets took flight in this game. Neal Pionk had two assists, Mason Appleton scored, and the Winnipeg Jets defeated the St. Louis Blues with a 4-2 victory on Tuesday night in Winnipeg.
The Jets have now won two straight games, sitting at an even 3-3-0 to open the season. Pionk was the only multi point player for the Jets, who had 4 different skaters score goals and 10 skaters in total register a point.
Winnipeg acting head coach Scott Arniel said that "We talked this morning about how good St. Louis is on the rush and we saw that, especially the top line. They had five or six chances there through the first two periods. We kind of got that straightened away a little bit in the third, we did a little better job of keeping them in front of us. At the end of the day, we've always talked about playing tight games, 2-1 games, and finding ways to finish them off and that's where we were going into the third period, and we did a great job of winning it."
David Gustafsson started the scoring, giving the Jets a 1-0 lead 2:55 into the second period, scoring his first goal of the season. 18 seconds later, Appleton lit the lamp with his second goal of the season, doubling the lead to 2-0. Pavel Buchnevich scored on the power play for the Blues at the 18:25 mark of the period, cutting the deficit to 2-1.
Kyle Connor gave the Jets a 3-1 lead 4:10 into the 3rd period, scoring his 4th goal of the season with the lone assist going to Nate Schmidt. Robert Thomas scored at the 16:37 mark of the period, cutting the deficit to 3-2. With the net empty and 1:10 left on the clock, Morgan Barron scored on an empty net to seal the win.
Appleton said of scoring right after Gustafsson that "When you score, you want to keep that pressure on and make them feel like they’re on their heels a bit and overthinking things. That’s kind of just a mindset that we have. Same with the last two minutes of each period and first two minutes of each period, those windows are where you can turn hockey games."
The starting goalie for the Jets was Connor Hellebuyck, who got the win to improve to 3-2-0 on the season. Hellebuyck stopped 18 out of the 20 shots he saw from the Blues, which was good for a .900 save percentage.
Getting the start in net for the Blues was Jordan Binnington, getting tagged with the loss as his record dropped to 2-1-1 this season. Binnington made 26 saves on the 29 shots the Jets had, giving him a .897 save percentage.
St. Louis captain Brayden Schenn said that "I just think we have to raise our battle level. You’re not going to generate chances if we’re not going to check as hard as we need to. We showed in the Pittsburgh game that if we check we generate and get chances, but if we kind of sit back and watch them play in your end, turn over the puck and not forecheck and create turnovers, you’re not going to get chances and shots."
Both teams get back in action with road games on Thursday night. Hellebuyck is expected to start for the Jets against the Detroit Red Wings, while Binnington is the likely starter as the Blues take on the Calgary Flames.
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