ST.
LOUIS – Well, judging by Sunday’s start to Game 4 of the Western
Conference First Round against the Winnipeg Jets for the St. Louis
Blues, it was hard-pressed to see a similar result as to the one they
got in Game 3.
Boy,
was that a wrong assumption.
Only
difference for the Blues, who smacked the Jets around for the second
time in as many games, 5-1 in Game 4 at Enterprise Center on Sunday
to even this best-of-7 series at 2-2, is they fell behind in this
one.
And
that was that.
The
Blues would score five straight goals, led by Jake Neighbours with a
goal and two assists; Brayden Schenn had a goal and an assist and
Colton Parayko had two helpers. Along with Neighbours, Tyler Tucker,
who suffered an awkward injury to his right leg late in the third
period, also scored his first Stanley Cup playoff goal; Justin Faulk
and Robert Thomas also scored and Jordan Binnington remained locked
in with a 30-save performance.
“We
knew where we were,” Faulk
said of losing Games 1 and 2.
“We had a job to do when we came back. Start with the first one,
come in and try and play well, get to our game. Obviously, the first
one went pretty well and went our way. We knew we had to try and
recreate that again today. It was a tough task after losing the first
two there. We wanted to get back even in the series and that’s
where we are. It’s three games now, series tied up. We’ve got to
keep going and keep playing well.”
What
now amounts to a best-of-3 series, Game 5 is slated for Wednesday in
Winnipeg.
Let’s
jump right into Sunday’s Three Takeaways:
*
Blues are driving the net with success – Upon returning from losing
Games 1 and 2 in Winnipeg, the Blues were focused on a number of
improvements upon turning this series back into their favor.
One
of them was getting net front traffic.
Jets
goalie Connor Hellebuyck had success in the first two games at home
because quite simply, the Blues made life too easy on the Vezina
Trophy finalist (and likely winner).
That
all changed in Game 3, and it continued into Game 4.
Let’s
face it, the Blues were only down 1-0 in this game because when Kyle
Connor scored at 13:58, it was done so after the Blues took two
minors that the Jets feasted off of. They didn’t score but got
momentum off of it. It was a lengthy shift after Schenn lost the puck
trying to make a play off the wall, and Neighbours whiffed on a
failed clear and it would up in their net.
But
when Neighbours scored on a tipped goal with 22.7 seconds remaining
in the first period, that’s a game-tying goal to make it 1-1 and it
wasn’t anything pretty. It wasn’t a tic-tac-toe passing play, it
was a Cam Fowler shot/pass that caromed to Parayko to the point, who
shoveled a one-timer that fluttered to the net, but there were bodies
there, including Neighbours, who got a stick on the puck.
Imagine
the feeling of being down 1-0. It would have been a situation where
the Blues wouldn’t have felt all that great about their game, but
that’s a shot-in-the-arm goal saying, ‘Hey, we’re tied again,
now let’s go play our game and take it over.’
“For
sure. That was the mindset,” Neighbours
said.
“We thought we started pretty well actually and then some
penalties, we kind of lost the momentum and then, honestly, I thought
we finished pretty strong in the last six minutes. It was just nice
to get one and tie it up.”
Parayko
said, “That was nice. Obviously coming in tied is a little better
than 1-0. End of the period, too, I think it was under a minute to
go, or close to. It’s a nice feeling to come in and hit the reset
button and come back out for the second (period). A little momentum.
They had some pressure in the first, but that’s playoff hockey.
There’s going to be momentum both ways.”
Five
of their seven goals came from the slot on in in Game 3, and three
more came at the net, including Schenn’s huge goal to give them a
3-1 lead at 17:23 of the second period that came after a power plat
expired.
“It’s
playoffs. You have to win the net front battle, you have to go to the
net,” Schenn said. “Not even just our series, but look
league-wide right now how pucks and goals are going in in the
playoffs. They’re not always going to be pretty. It’s such a
cliché answer but you get pucks and people and traffic to the net,
shoot the puck and hopefully good things happen.”
And
Thomas’ goal at 2:01 of the third period was another net front goal
that made it 5-1 and chased Hellebuyck for the second straight game.
Neighbours
talked after losing the first two games of how the Blues just have to
have a mindset and fight through Winnipeg’s big, heavy D-men that
make it tough to get to the middle of the ice and they’ve found a
way to figure this out.
“I
think it’s just the mindset, the attitude to do it,” Neighbours
said.
“It’s hard, it’s not easy and it’s not a fun place to go, but
it can be rewarding as we’ve seen the last couple of games. It’s
just as simple as that, it’s just an attitude and a willingness to
go there, get there and you know you’re going to create space for
others around you, create traffic for shots and things like that. So
it’s just a very necessary part of the O-zone that we’ve done a
really good job on the last two.”
*
Defensemen are filtering into the offense – Blues defensemen had so
much success, especially post-4 Nations Face-Off, where the
defensemen were contributing to the offense.
The
Blues were second in the league during the regular season with 46
goals behind the Colorado Avalanche (54), and it was part of the fuel
that stoked the fire of a franchise-record 12-game winning streak.
In
Games 1 and 2, they’re D-men produced zero goals and three assists
on four goals, and Cam Fowler had two of those assists.
In
Game 3, Fowler and Parayko scored. In Game 4, Tucker and Faulk scored
goals, and they came from distance in the second period because of a
willingness to shoot pucks, and off one-timers knowing full well the
forwards are driving the net, getting traffic there and they’re
finding the lanes to get through and past what looks like a fragile
goalie.
Tucker's one-time blast off a Nick Leddy feed at 10:46 of the second period gave the Blues the lead for good at 2-1.
Then Faulk's goal that made it 4-1 at 18:54 of the second, another one-timer from the blue line that caromed in off Jets defenseman Neal Pionk with Jordan Kyrou running traffic at the net, seemed to be the back-breaking goal.
“That’s
what we try to do. We’ve got a lot of D that can skate and play,
shoot pucks, make passes, whatever,” Faulk
said.
“Guys that have played in the league a long time. It’s an
emphasis of ours to make sure we’re skating and doing our part to
help out, and create offense as much as we can.
“I
think we’re trying to skate, make plays moving our feet. It’s
tough to make plays sitting back. They’re not strong plays. There’s
not as much pressure, you don’t pull guys out of position at all.
So if we can skate and make plays and put them on their heels a
little bit, it just makes it a little bit tougher on them.”
Blues
coach Jim Montgomery agreed, that the defensemen are moving their
feet more and it’s giving them more opportunities, something that
lacked early in the series.
“Yeah,
I think by them moving their feet, they get more into a rhythm of the
game and they end up getting open looks, especially in the offensive
zone,” Montgomery said. “If they’re moving their feet, I
thought we were standing still a lot in Winnipeg, and I think as a
team, we’re moving our feet and we’re getting to goal lines,
we’re getting numbers on the puck and then we’re able to go low
to high and our defensemen, because of the way Winnipeg does such a
great job in the D-zone, have a little more time if they’re moving
their feet to get to middle ice.”
*
Binnington outplaying Hellebuyck (again) – There’s something
about going up against Hellebuyck that seems to bring out the best in
Binnington.
He
didn’t have to be at his best -- although Cole Perfetti may object
– in Game 3 with 16 saves, but when Binnington sees the guy at the
opposite end get pulled from the game for the second straight time
here, there’s that mindset of just keep making saves in this one
and give your team a chance to win.
The
Jets had some good looks, especially in the first period and on their
two power players, and Binnington fought through the traffic, he was
seeing pucks and when making saves, he was putting them into spots
that forced the Jets to retrieve away from high-danger areas.
But
right now, Binnington looks solid, confident, unlike his counterpart.
“I
think the D-men are doing a good job of helping him in front of the
net, but he’s making big saves when he needs to,” Schenn
said.
“Obviously when ‘Binner’s on, he has the ability to read the
play really well. I think he’s done a great job of that. Obviously
he’s made timely saves, key saves. He’s gotten better as the
year’s gone on.”
“Yeah,
he’s playing really good,” Parayko said. “We always have
confidence when he’s back there, just a good goal and can’t say
enough good things about him as a player, person, teammate. We’re
fortunate as the Blues to have him back there and we’re just going
to just try to do our best in front of him and do his thing.”
And
then on the flip side of it, the Blues have found a way to chase the
guy that’s likely to win the Vezina on Monday two games in a row.
Blues fans let it be known they WANTED Hellebuyck to remain in goal:
“We’re
just trying to get pucks to the net, and bodies to the net,” Faulk
said. ‘It’s a simple recipe. I’m sure every team in the
playoffs is saying that. It’s net-front battles. We’ve got to win
ours in our end, and win in their end. It’s nothing crazy. We’re
just trying to make it tough on them and their D.”
Mission
accomplished. Now the question becomes can they keep it up on the
road? We’ll soon enough find out.
Montgomery said plain and simple, "I think we’re own the net front and our goaltender’s making saves."
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