Jets score twice in 18 seconds, hold off Blues

WINNIPEG -- David Gustafsson and Mason Appleton scored 18 seconds apart in the second period, and the Winnipeg Jets held on for a 4-2 win against the St. Louis Blues at Canada Life Centre on Tuesday.

“Those are big momentum shifts,” Appleton said. “When you score, you want to keep that pressure on and make them feel like they’re on their heels a bit and overthinking things. That’s kind of just a mindset that we have. Same with the last two minutes of each period and first two minutes of each period -- those windows are where you can turn hockey games.”
 
Kyle Connor and Morgan Barron also scored for the Jets (3-3-0), and Connor Hellebuyck made 18 saves. Neal Pionk had two assists.

Winnipeg was without coach Rick Bowness, who took a leave of absence after his wife, Judy, suffered a seizure Sunday.

“We talked this morning about how good St. Louis is on the rush and we saw that, especially the top line,” Jets associate coach Scott Arniel said. “They had five or six chances there through the first two periods. We kind of got that straightened away a little bit in the third, we did a little better job of keeping them in front of us. At the end of the day, we've always talked about playing tight games, 2-1 games, and finding ways to finish them off and that's where we were going into the third period, and we did a great job of winning it."

Pavel Buchnevich had a goal and an assist, and Robert Thomas scored for the Blues (2-2-1). Jordan Binnington made 26 saves.

“We had some opportunities, and we missed some wide-open nets,” St. Louis coach Craig Berube said. “Second period, we fell asleep there for the two goals. They just had three shooters and we fell asleep on both of them, so that really changed things.”

Gustafsson gave Winnipeg a 1-0 lead at 2:55 of the second, one-timing Cole Perfetti’s feed from behind the net.

“It was a really nice pass,” Gustafsson said. “[Perfetti] is a skilled player, he can make those passes. Whenever you’re on the ice with him, just have your stick down and you can get a good scoring chance like I did.”

Appleton then made it 2-0 at 3:13, a one-timer of Adam Lowry’s pass in the right face-off circle.

“To score two quick goals like that was huge,” Appleton said. “[We] just stuck to our game. In the first (period) we had some really good grinding shifts down there. We didn’t score, their goalie played really well, but we gave up some chances off the rush. We cleaned that up, but we stuck to our keys.”

Buchnevich cut it to 2-1 at 18:25 on a power play, redirecting Brayden Schenn’s feed past Hellebuyck.

“I just think we have to raise our battle level,” said Schenn, the Blues captain. “You’re not going to generate chances if we’re not going to check as hard as we need to. We showed in the Pittsburgh game (a 4-2 win Saturday) that if we check we generate and get chances, but if we kind of sit back and watch them play in your end, turn over the puck and not forecheck and create turnovers, you’re not going to get chances and shots.”

Connor restored the Jets’ two-goal lead when he scored on a wrist shot from the left circle during a 4-on-4 situation at 4:10 of the third period.

“Giving up that 4-on-4 goal was unacceptable,” Berube said. “It should have been a nothing play, and we shot ourselves in the foot there.”

Thomas cut it to 3-2 with a wrist shot at 16:37 with Binnington pulled for the extra attacker.

Barron scored an empty-net goal at 18:50 for the 4-2 final.

NOTES: It was the fastest two goals by the Jets since Dec. 15, 2019, when Logan Shaw and Patrik Laine scored 16 seconds apart. … In addition to his goal and assist, Buchnevich had three shots, a hit and a blocked shot in 17:25 of ice time after missing two games with an upper-body injury. … St. Louis has lost its past four games in Winnipeg. … Gustafsson’s goal was his first since Nov. 27, 2019. … Jets forward Mark Scheifele extended his season-opening point streak to six games (four goals, three assists). The only players in Jets/Atlanta Thrashers history with a longer season-opening point streak are Blake Wheeler (eight games, 2015-16) and Donald Audette (seven, 2000-01).