Another game hanging in the balance for the St. Louis Blues, another one that got away.
And with a 2-1 loss against the Winnipeg Jets in Game 2 of the Western Conference First Round, the Blues now head home in an 0-2 hole in the best-of-7 series after falling on Monday at Canada Life Centre in Winnipeg.
There were many similarities to what transpired in Game 1, a 5-3 Jets win, when the teams came out flying in the first period, and the Blues had a similar start with the temperature up. But for the second game in a row, they were outscored in the third period and that's been the difference in this series, and again, it was Kyle Connor scoring the game-winner, just like he did with 1:36 remaining in regulation on Saturday, he did so this time just 1:43 into the third to break a 1-all tie.
Jimmy Snuggerud scored his first NHL goal and Jordan Binnington was solid with 210 saves in the game.
The series now shifts to St. Louis for Game 3 on Thursday.
Let's roll into Monday's Three Takeaways:
* Jets best players outplaying Blues best players, especially in third period -- You want to know where the series has been the difference? The third period.
The Jets have now outscored the Blues 4-0 in two games, and it's Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor doing the damage, and they did it again.
The game-winner was set up on a puck from blue line to blue line, back in around the net where Cam Fowler wasn't able to win over a puck from Scheifele, who in turn gets it to Cole Perfetti, who finds an open Connor from behind the net in the slot past Pavel Buchnevich and he beats Binnington five-hole after Colton Parayko knocked the stick out of his goalie's hand as the shot was being taken when he spun around.
The Blues needed Fowler to kill that play behind the net or at least disrupt it better, and the middle of the ice shouldn't have been that open.
"Winnipeg has made one more play than us," said Blues coach Jim Montgomery, who inserted Tyler Tucker into the lineup and went with 11 forwards and seven defensemen Monday. "Both games. Shots are dead even, so they're just making one more play, and their best players are making them.
"I thought we had good puck pressure on the play up top, and I think that play should be killed behind the net by us. And then we got to be able to cover. I mean, we want to force the puck up high versus allowing 81 to get a shot from the hashmarks."
I've always said a plus-minus isn't a tell-all thing for me, but in a tight series like this, it spells a lot. On Monday, it was Scheifele plus-2, Connor plus-2; Robert Thomas minus-2, Parayko minus-2.
On Saturday, Fowler was minus-3, Brayden Schenn was minus-2, Thomas was minus-2, Jordan Kyrou, who got rocked by a Logan Stanley hit in the neutral zone in the first period, was a minus-2, Parayko, Jake Neighbours and Buchnevich each was a minus-2 while Scheifele, Connor and linemate Alex Iafallo each was a plus-2.
Winnipeg's best players are making more plays that has the Jets up and if the Blues are to change course, that has to change.
"They just play well together.," Parayko said. "They’re dangerous from all areas, they can score from all over the offensive zone. They’ve played together all year and know where each other are. They’re just dangerous players whenever they get the puck."
In two games in the third period, the Blues have generated a mere seven shots on goal in 40 minutes. Not nearly good enough.
"Yeah, (we need to) get inside a little bit more, I would say," Schenn said. "[Connor] Hellebuyck made some saves tonight. If we just do a little bit better job of getting traffic, and pucks and people to the net for some second opportunities."
* Binnington gave Blues a chance -- This one falls into the don't blame the goalie (again).
Binnington was beaten twice in this game, in an inadvertent way by his own teammates; first, when Scheifele scored his second lucky goal of the series after driving the net after easily driving wide around Nick Leddy, having his shot stopped, but then knocked in by Snuggerud's skate in front trying to help.
"I feel like (I am) just trying to backcheck him, play the body on him, and you know, pucks happen to hit skates and stuff," Snuggerud said, "and it just went in. So, it's an unfortunate bounce, but it happens."
And of course, he didn't have a chance when Parayko knocked his stick out of his hand, but the best save of the game came off a backdoor play to Mason Appleton late in the first period of a 1-1 game that looked like a sure goal.
Even though Binnington only saw 22 shots in the game, Binnington made some key stops when the Blues needed them, most when the game was tied 1-1 and gave his team a chance, which is what you want from your goalie.
* Snuggerud needs to keep shooter's mentality -- Snuggerud had to feel worse than anyone on the ice when the Scheifele goal went in off him.
But he atoned himself with a snipe power play goal just beating the horn at 19:58 of the first period to tie the game.
"It was a great play by 'Buchy,'" Snuggerud said. "I tried to pick a corner and fortunately enough it went in, but at the end of the day we lost and it's no fun losing.
"I mean I kind of realized the clock and tried to get it off as quick as possible."
Snuggerud, who was elevated to the Thomas line, played 20:01 and had seven shot attempts in the game with two on goal. He'll get better at putting more pucks at the net but he had a shooter's mindset in this game, which bodes well moving forward; he also blocked two shots in the game.
The 20:01 is his NHL career high in ice time in his ninth NHL game.
"Yeah, he’s great.," Schenn said of Snuggerud. "Great shot, playing well, tough environment obviously. He’s coming out of college hockey and he’s definitely not out of place. He’s playing really well and we’re happy he’s a Blue."
* Bonus takeaway: power play got stale -- The good news is when Snuggerud scored, it made the Blues a robust 3-for-4 with the man advantage. That's good. No, that's exceptional.
The bad news is they had three more after that, including two in the second half of the second period with the chance to take the lead and failed to convert and another in the third with a chance to tie and also did not convert.
The biggest issue was they got away from having a shooter's mindset. For whatever reason, they tried making the extra passes and when they did that, the Jets closed quickly and closed the zone out.
"Yeah probably not as much shot volume as we needed to get second and third chances, or just to tire them out.," Schenn said. "That’s something that we’re going to have to look at it. It’s a series of adjustment and power play has to do a better job to come up big for us in key moments."
Also, they have to do a better job of winning more draws off the offensive zone face-off because when Winnipeg was winning them and clearing the zone, the Blues had all sorts of issues gaining entry into the O-zone with the Jets lining up across the blue line.
"I don't think we were shot focused enough," Montgomery said. "I do think we had some really good looks and we didn't execute either the pass or, more importantly, the shots. And I thought, Hellebuyck made a couple of big-time saves."
* Hear the full comments from Montgomery and players postgame:
