ST.LOUIS – It was déjà vu all over again as it was the Ondrej Pavelec show as he posted back-to-back shutouts his 4th of the season and 14th of his career and was again named the game’s first star as he stopped 30 shots including a couple huge stops off Jaden Schwartz and David Backes to help his team to a 1-0 victory over the St. Louis Blues.
“There’s no better way, shut out the two teams, that’s as good as it gets,” Jets coach Paul Maurice said. “[Monday] night’s game, there was a cost to it, and you could see it at times (tonight) but not in terms of effort.
“Our goaltender again was really good and everybody on the bench had a piece of the game.”
The Jets moved three points up on the Los Angeles Kings (who lost to the Edmonton Oilers) and one point up on the Calgary Flames (who beat the Arizona Coyotes).
“It’s a really good four points,” Pavelec said. “Good wins but we’ve got two more (games remaining).
“We know we can do it. Overall we played a very good game, so we know we can play with these guys. They were missing some guys (Alexander Steen and Vladimir Tarasenko) in the lineup, so that’s always good. … I was able to see (the puck) all game. In the third period the puck was just missing the net. You needed luck to get a shutout.”
It was another total team effort for the Jets who won for the first time in franchise history at Scottrade Center, a building that has not been kind to them. There was maybe some luck on their side as with five minutes remaining in the second period it appeared that Paul Stastny had scored on a breakaway to tie the game at 1-1 but it was later decided that he would receive a slashing penalty as he hacked the stick out of Tyler Myers hands to get the breakaway. This would prove to be the turning point unless you take a handful of Pavelec stops.
“I was just battling, getting good stick position, playing simple,” Stastny said. “I saw a pass coming. I’m just trying to make body or stick position. I thought nothing of it.
“I think if I would have gone extremely hard, if I would have been hesitant about it or broken [Myers’] stick, I would have understood; it’s an easy call.”
These two teams have developed quite the rivalry and have a serious dislike for each other and this would be quite the first round match up for the NHL if they end up meeting.
“We play these guys five times a year, it seems like we’re getting a little bit of a rivalry in there,” Blues right wing T.J. Oshie said. “It was a good, hard-fought game. They played [Monday] night and came in, did a good job pushing back when we had momentum, and we have to find ways to score.”
Both teams are big hard hitting fast skating teams who love the aggressive style. There were many one-on-one battles that will carry over for sure. Mark Stuart and T.J. Oshie had something going on all game and things were nasty at times. Blues captain David Backes may be getting a call from the league for a vicious cross check to the back of the neck of Stuart late in the game.
Winnipeg got its lone goal from an unlikely source as fourth liner Chris Thorburn notched his 7th of the season to get the game winner.
Blues netminder Jake Allen stopped 30 of 31 shots and was named the game’s second star as it was the battle of the goalies tonight.
Jets will head to Denver to face the Avalanche on Thursday night in another huge division battle for them.
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