The chance to take hold of a series was there for the taking for the St. Louis Blues.
Instead, it was a case of the home team holding serve once again.
The Winnipeg Jets regained control of the Western Conference First Round series with a 5-3 win against the Blues at Canada Life Centre on Wednesday.
Nathan Walker scored his first and second career playoff goals, Jimmy Snuggerud added his second career playoff goal, but the Blues, who now trail the best-of-7 series 3-2 and will look to stave off elimination in Game 6 on Friday, did not build off the momentum of trouncing the Jets in Games 3 and 4 by a 12-3 difference. Jordan Binnington made 21 saves.
"I thought that was their best game, thought it was our worst game," Blues coach Jim Montgomery said. "We’re onto the next one. We can analyze every part of it. They were better, so, we’re onto the next one."
Let's go straight to Wednesday's Three Takeaways:
* No-shot mentality for first two periods on a fragile goalie -- When I looked at the stat sheet and saw the Blues had just nine shots on goal through 40 minutes and had fewer shot attempts (21) than the Jets had shots on goal (22) through two periods, that was the game for me.
Going into Game 5, the Blues already knew they were facing a fragile goalie in Connor Hellebuyck, who was chased in Games 3 and 4 after getting lit up for 11 goals, so even if the shot attempts weren't going to all be of high quality, you have to think just putting pucks at 'Playoff Hellebuyck' would be the smart thing to do, and when he allowed an absolute stinker to Snuggerud at 6:06 of the second period that tied the game 2-2, the mindset should have been throw pucks from any direction, from all angles of the ice at this guy.
But instead, it took nearly eight minutes -- 7:48 to be exact -- for the Blues to put another puck on the likely Vezine Trophy winner, and it was Alexey Toropchenko. And Faulk's wrister from the blue line with 5:51 to go in the period was handled, that was the extent of testing this goalie.
A robust three shots on goal. THREE. Sure, the Jets had something to do with it, by the way they defended the ice, but the Blues weren't even attempting shots. At least force them to block pucks.
Yes, Hellebuyck made the save he needed to on an Oskar Sundqvist shorthanded chance that should have given the Blues a 2-1 lead, Sundqvist did him a huge favor by missing 98 percent of an empty net.
"Yeah, awesome play by 'Walks,'" Sundqvist said. "If I get 10 of them, nine are probably going in. So it’s one of those nights I guess."
It was too many one-and-done's in the offensive zone, passes weren't crisp, in stride, too many broken plays and there was no flow. And that comes from not playing connected and playing spread out, which is another head-scratcher as to why they would play that way.
"Yeah, we didn't really establish our forecheck and hem them in and get them in three-quarter ice," Faulk said. "They were able to do that to us a little bit, and then obviously got a couple of goals there to pull away with a lead a bit. They were the better team in the second period there."
They finally at least tried to get pucks to the net in the third period, with 10 of their 19 shots. But to have 21 shot attempts through 40 minutes was inexcusable (they at least had 30 in the third period).
Walker's first goal was a perfect storm of executing just what they needed to do. The Blues were shooting pucks on the shift, retrieved it, and without hesitation, Colton Parayko funneled it to the net where Walker was parked for the tip to tie game 1-1 at 3:42 of the first.
It was shot-like mentality that inexplicably disappeared, and may have cost the Blues this series. It surely cost them the stranglehold of this series, which was there to be had.
The Jets finished with 14 blocks, which isn't a lot by any means. That just says the Blues hesitated or refused to shoot pucks, which can't be explained.
"I think the first two periods we didn’t get to our game.," Blues captain Brayden Schenn said. "We didn’t (get to) any forechecks, credit to them. They were better at all lines tonight and you know what, turn the page, move on and we’ll be ready for Game 6.
"... Everything. Shots, traffic, made it too easy on [Hellebuyck] tonight and we know that."
* Lost net front battle -- Walker's goal aside, another ingredient missing was the willingness to get to the net. Some of that had to do with the Jets boxing out better, but there just weren't nearly enough bodies in front of Hellebuyck, who clearly had issues in St. Louis when the Blues were loading up the box.
The Jets, on the other hand, made it a point of getting to the net, and did so with success, and the Blues did not do a good enough job of boxing out.
It started with Connor's goal to open the scoring at 1:23 when Robert Thomas got intercepted on a breakout pass, then Snuggerud's reverse pivot pass was picked off behind the net, so it started with a couple of puck mistakes. But what happened next was baffling because it just seemed like the Blues stopped skating when everyone thought Thomas caught Mason Appleton with a stick to the face but no call was made. But then it just seemed like the Blues stopped playing, including Alexandre Texier, who got puck watching and had the Jets' most lethal shooter right in his sight and gave up the free space in the slot.
And despite getting exactly what they want from the Walker goal, a fourth-line goal, a secondary goal, the Jets went back on top when Nino Niederreiter pitched a tent in front of Binnington and redirected a Dylan Samberg point shot in at 8:39 for a 2-1 lead.
Two veteran defensemen (Ryan Suter and Nick Leddy) were so far out of position leaving Niederreiter open.
Zack Bolduc was also there, and perhaps Suter thought the young forward was picking up the net front man, but that was not the case.
And even on Dylan DeMelo's goal at 11:05 of the second period that gave the Jets a one-goal lead for the third time (3-2), Gabriel Vilardi was trying to get to the net, while Parayko was attempting to box him out, and in Justin Faulk-like fashion when he scored off Neal Pionk in Game 4, DeMelo's shot was going three feet wide but hit Parayko's backside and went past Binnington, but it was all in an attempt to get a puck to the goal while a forward was trying to get to the net front.
Winnipeg made it a point of doing it more so in this game.
* Some of Blues top players were absent -- Quite frankly, the Blues just needed more from their better more skillful, players.
Jordan Kyrou was without a shot attempt through two periods and finished with one shot on goal and was a minus-3. Other than breaking up a couple plays defensively, he has to make an impact on offense and was non-existent.
Thomas had an assist on Snuggerud's goal but did not register a shot on goal on two attempts. But he had too many pass attempts that were off the mark and part of the one-and-done's in this game. For a puck possession skater who's so accurate, he wasn't as clean with it in this game.
Zach Bolduc had no shots on goal and was a minus-2, including giving up the puck late in the second period and not back-checking on the killer goal by Vladislav Namestnikov with 1:09 left in the second that made it 4-2 and for all intents and purposes, closed this game down.
And Pavel Buchnevich, who had a hat trick in Game 3 when he had five shots on goal, had one shot on Wednesday (two attempts) after having zero in Game 4.
Some of the top-end guys just did not produce.
And the Blues had just sis shots on goal, and three of them came from Faulk.
"We’ve got to be more connected," Montgomery said. "I didn’t think our puck support was good enough, I didn’t think we got back quick enough, I didn’t think we won our forecheck, we didn’t establish it. lt's every facet. But you know what, it’s a series. It’s going to happen. Unfortunately, we’re not happy about it but we’re onto the next one. It’s as simple as that. We’ve got to forget about it. we’re in a series."
* Bonus takeaway: fourth line was Blues' best, and it can't be to have success -- The Blues had a trip that came to play in this game, and it was Walker, Radek Faksa and Toropchenko.
The 'WTF' line has a role that it plays. Be responsible, play physical, defend with a purpose and chip in the occasional offense when needed.
Not only did Walker score twice, including this effort goal when the game was already decided in the final minute of regulation, but it also got assists from Faksa and Toropchenko on the goal and a combined 14 hits, including Walker's game-high seven. Each skater was also a plus-2.
Oh by the way, it was Faksa's hit on Jets center Mark Scheifele that knocked him out of the game for good in the first period after Schenn's big hit along the wall at 6:12.
And the Blues couldn't take advantage of Winnipeg's top-line center missing the final 40 minutes. Big miss.
The problem is when this is the team's best line, the Blues are not having a good night. A number of others could have followed the script of these three for this game and now leaves the team scrambling to save it's season on Friday.
"I thought they did a lot of good things," Montgomery said of the 'WTF' line. "Their habits and their game management was excellent. They had a lot of big hits again and they just keep, you know, they keep building our game the right way. So, they’re a good example of what we need to do."
