In Winnipeg, Connor Hellebuyck made 25 saves and the Jets ended a spate of dreadful efforts with a 4-0 shutout of the St Louis Blues on Monday night.
“We needed everyone tonight, and we played a full 60 (minutes),” Hellebuyck said. “Character is in this room, and now we know the game plan that we need. … This game wasn’t going to be won off of a couple sweet plays. It was going to be won in the corners and making sure they got nothing.”
After a scoreless first period, Mark Scheifele put the Jets up, 1-0.
“Tonight was good for our team to play the way we did against a very, very good hockey team,” Scheifele said. “Just getting used to [Bowness’ new system] and getting used to each other and used to guys’ routes. That was a pretty solid win.”
The loss was the first of the new season for the Blues.
“We deviated coming off a big, emotional win against Edmonton (2-0 on Saturday),” St. Louis captain Ryan O’Reilly said. “Whether we wanted it a little easier, we just kind of got away. We’ve got to stick with that game play, be hard to play against and not be the team to break. But we broke first and it just gave them momentum.”
Sam Gagner and Morgan Barron scored to give the Jets a 3-0 lead in the third period.
“I thought we did a great job tonight of getting to the net, of not playing to the outside,” Jets assistant Arniel said. “We played a lot more on the inside of the offensive zone, and we got rewarded for it.”
Cole Perfetti added an empty-net goal with less than two minutes to go in the game for the 4-0 final.
“You’re always in it, but they just kind of hemmed us in there,” Blues forward Brayden Schenn said. “I don’t think we deserved to win it tonight by any means. We were in it, I guess, until midway through the third period, but I don’t think we deserved to win it. It wasn’t our best. We’ll flush it out and get ready for our next one.”
Thomas Greiss made 39 saves in the St Louis loss, it was his first game with the Blues..
“[Greiss] was really good tonight,” St. Louis coach Craig Berube said. “We were good in the first. I thought it was a good period, a good starting period, then execution was not good by us. And the penalties (5-for-5 on penalty kill).”
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