ST.
LOUIS – Judging by the thunderous, boisterous St. Louis Blues crowd
in attendance for Game 3 of the Western Conference First Round
against the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday, one could hardly tell the home
side was down two games in the series.
The
Jets took Games 1 and 2 at home and held serve. The Blues knew they
had to do the same.
Boy,
did they ever get off to the start they wanted and did so in
convincing fashion.
And
they were led by their best players.
Pavel
Buchnevich scored his first NHL playoff hat trick and had an assist,
Cam Fowler set a Blues franchise record for most points by a
defenseman with five (one goal, four assists) and Robert Thomas had
four assists, who chased likely Vezina Trophy winner Connor
Hellebuyck in a 7-2 romp over the Jets before 18,096 at Enterprise
Center to get themselves back in the series, now trailing the
best-of-7 series 2-1.
This
was a juggernaut performance that the Blues needed and sent a message
to the Presidents’ Trophy winners that they won’t go down without
a fight and in fact, they have every intention of winning the series
despite losing the first two games on the road.
Colton
Parayko, Jordan Kyrou and Alexey Toropchenko all scored goals, and
Jordan Binnington made 16 saves, including what amounted to be a
10-bell save on Cole Perfetti midway through the second period of a
3-0 game that needed video review.
The
Blues, who will host Game 4 on Sunday at noon (FDSNMW, MAX,
truTV, SN, TVAS, CBC,
ESPN
101.1-FM) looking to even the series, scored three more power-play
goals to give them six in the series, but they scored four times at
even-strength, which netted them just one goal by Oskar Sundqvist in
the first two games.
And
on top of it, the Blues have now won 13 straight games on home ice
dating back to the regular season. They’ve made this a place that
visiting teams don’t want to play in.
Without
wasting any more time, let’s get into Thursday’s Three Takeaways:
*
A thunderous start – The Blues came into the game wanting and
needing to implement a few adjustments to the game.
They
wanted to get to the net more with purpose and make life difficult in
front of Connor Hellebuyck (check); they wanted to play north hockey
(check); they wanted to get sustained zone time (check); and they
wanted to incorporate their defensemen into the offensive zone
(check).
And
in the first 10 minutes of that hockey game, the Blues fed off the
emotion of the crowd and for the third straight game, they came out
with with fire and played really well in the first period.
But
this was different. This was put a hammerlock down on a game and not
make it a chess match over the final 40 minutes, like it was at
Canada Life Centre.
“I
think it was just trying to get away from 1-and-done hockey,”
Fowler said. “Hellebuyck was seeing a lot of shots there in
Winnipeg, he can control the rebound and the way that they play, they
have five guys in front of the net, they’re able to clear the
rebounds and come out the other end there. We just wanted to make
life a little bit harder with traffic and more pucks directed at the
net and our guys did a great job of establishing the forecheck and
letting us play a little more time in the offensive zone that helped
us out quite a bit.”
Blues
coach Jim Montgomery noticed this, Thursday, wasn’t just setting
the tone for 20 minutes, but the way they did things, carried forward
through the rest of the game, despite the Jets elevating their game
in the second period and needing an incredible Binnington save on
Cole Perfetti at the 10:05 mark of the period that preserved a 3-0
lead.
“I
just thought that the attitude we had … we started the other two
games really well, and what I liked was the fierce, competitive
nature in our attitude for 60 minutes,” Montgomery said. “The
start was incredible. We were aggressive, we did the things we wanted
to do to make sure that we were going to get more scoring chances,
and we did get more scoring chances.”
There
was no East-West hockey, not against this team. This was a North
mindset with a purpose.
“They've
been playing well at 5-on-5
defense and not giving us much,” Thomas
said of the Jets.
“And we changed a couple things, and were able to find success
early, and we just got to look to keep on going with that, as well as
keep looking for adjustments to try and keep on finding success.”
*
Blues best players rose to the occasion – In Games 1 and 2, Mark
Scheifele and Kyle Connor, Winnipeg’s best players, were the best
players when it mattered most in helping their team win the first two
games.
The
Blues needed their top-end guys to be not only their best players,
but the best players in the game itself.
They
didn’t waste time when Buchnevich, who came into the game with one
playoff goal in 22 career games, went to the net 48 seconds into the
game and made it 1-0. He tried making a play with a puck through the
slot area that Fowler corralled and in turn, he makes a quick play
off the wall to the net where Jimmy Snuggerud is. He got a piece of
it but Buchnevich collects the loose puck, kicks the puck to his
stick before poking it past Hellebuyck in a sign of things to come.
“I
know Faksy, Walks and Torpo [Radek
Faksa, Nathan Walker and Alexey Toropchenko] had
a great (first)
shift,
physical, the crowd got going, really loud and we just followed
them,” Buchnevich
said.
“On
second shift we
got (a)
turnover,
I shot, missed the net and you know, ‘CF’ hit the net and I got
the rebound and the crowd got nuts and the emotions get even more and
we keep going.”
They
did keep going, and Buchnevich got going again, making it 2-0 at 3:11
when he scored the first of three power-play goals on the night,
redirecting a high-slot pass by Thomas past Hellebuyck.
It’s
another example of being at or near the net, something that was
visibly absent in the first two games.
“I
don’t really know how to describe it,” Buchnevich said. ‘Just a
crazy, emotional start. We throw the puck at the net, we got the
rebound and when you score the first goal the game opens up and we
got the second one right away. It’s a little bit easier to play
with the lead, so we’ve got to score first and it’ll be easier to
play.”
Fowler
made it 3-0 at 15:51 on a play that was a perfect example of what the
defensemen were looking to do: filter into the offensive zone and be
a force there.
Fowler
was able to do that with the puck behind his whole net, starting the
play moving it to the left to Colton Parayko, who found Buchnevich in
the neutral zone. He in turn found Thomas, all the while Fowler was
skating with a purpose in the middle of the ice down the slot before
Thomas found him, and he quickly snapped a shot high glove (sound
familiar?) on Hellebuyck.
“We
had talked a little bit about our ‘D’ trying to use our skating
ability to our advantage,” Fowler said. “The play kind of
developed there and I kind of saw that we had full control on the
wall and I just felt like I could jump in and try and contribute to
the rush a little bit and ‘Tommer’ made a great play and I just
tried to get it off as quick as I could and happy to see it go in. It
was more about just the mindset of our ‘D’ trying to use our legs
and skate. I saw the opportunity and just tried to jump in, but like
I said, ‘Tommer’ made that whole thing possible. It was a heck of
a play by him.
“It
wasn’t a set play or anything, no. I wanted to try and be more of a
factor with my legs and push them back a little bit. I just saw that
we had full control and it was nothing more than just seeing a lane
to the net and trying to jump through it as fast as I could.”
Leading
4-1, Jordan Kyrou, who scored in Game 1, got into the scoring again
with his second power-play goal of the series, again using Brayden
Schenn as a screen and beating Hellebuyck high glove at 7:56 of the
third period and put the game out of reach – if it wasn’t already
– at 5-1.
And
then Toropchenko, following the blueprint of what the Blues wanted to
go driving the net, did just that and redirecting a Jake Neighbours
pass from the slot at 10:32 of the third to make it 6-1 that chased Hellebuyck from
the game in favor of Eric Comrie.
And
Parayko, getting some power-play time, bombed away a power-play goal
at 16:17 for the 7-2 final.
So
as far as best players being best players, the Blues received 15
points (six goals, nine assists) from Fowler, Thomas, Buchnevich,
Kyrou and Parayko.
Fowler's five points set the franchise record for points by a defenseman, besting Brian Benning, who had four points (all assists) against the Toronto Maple Leafs on April 11, 1987.
And Buchnevich's hat trick is the first in the playoffs since Vladimir Tarasenko in 2022 against the Minnesota Wild and first at home since Jaden Schwartz had one in 2019 in the clinching Game 6 of the first round against the Jets.
*
Blues checked with purpose – The first 10 minutes was also a
perfect example of not only playing North hockey but having a
checking aspect.
The
Blues had 63 hits in the game, a franchise record in a playoff game,
and some might look at that and say they were chasing hits.
That’s
farthest from the truth.
Jake
Neighbours became the second Blue (Brayden Schenn in Game 1) with
nine hits in a game, and Nathan Walker had seven.
There
are those that say when you’re hitting, it means you don’t have
the puck. The Blues were hitting and winning the puck, so they were
timing their hits that helped them get the puck.
Take
Buchnevich’s hat trick goal for example. When the puck is played
behind the net, Thomas recognizes that there’s a goalie there that
doesn’t handle the puck like theirs and there’s a chance to
disrupt zone exits with a forecheck. Thomas was able to take
advantage of a nonchalant Hellebuyck, stripping it from the goalie,
and Buchnevich was the F2 in and took advantage of the pressure and
curled to backhand the puck in the net at 5:24 of the third period
that made it 4-1. It came 52 seconds after Winnipeg got some life on
a David Gustafsson goal at 4:32 to make it 3-1.
“I
thought ‘Buchy’ has been good in the first two games, especially
defensively,” Montgomery
said.
“But offensively, I thought there was more in his game, and I
thought he brought that tonight. Not only him, but that line and our
power play.”
“It’s
amazing,” Fowler said. “’Buchy’ is a heart-and-soul guy. He’s
a huge part of our team, a huge part of our locker room, a huge part
of why we were able to get a win tonight. A special night for him.
It’s not something that comes around very often to get the chance
to score three goals in a playoff game. I know he’ll tell you the
team getting the win means more to him as well and that’s the
mindset that we have to have, but it was a special night for him and
he should enjoy it.”
Now
the Blues have to carry this momentum into Sunday’s game. The Jets
will make their adjustments, the Blues will have to counter. But if
they can keep this blueprint moving forward, there will be more
success throughout the series.
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