GAMEDAY: Blues at Jets

WINNIPEG – The Winnipeg Jets will look to make it back-to-back wins on back-to-back days when they host the St. Louis Blues at Canada Life Centre on Sunday afternoon.

The Jets played one of their best defensive games of the year holding the league’s best team the Colorado Avalanche to just one goal in a 3-1 win on Saturday.

“I thought we were competitive on pucks. We knew that with their talent and skill, and they come in with speed, we did a really good job of protecting the guts of the ice. There were a couple of breakdowns, but (Connor) Hellebuyck was there for those,” said head coach Scott Arniel.

“At the end of the day, I thought we did a really good job managing the game. Doing a good job of getting our five above their five and for the most part we did a strong job of that.”

The Jets are six points out of a playoff spot with time running out and will need to show more consistency than they have for the majority of this week with losses on Tuesday and Thursday.

“In this league, at this time of year, when you get into February and March and April, it’s heavy hockey, it’s a hard hockey. Teams are jockeying to get in, teams are jockeying for positioning in the standings, guys are playing for jobs – it’s everything,” said Arniel.

“Prior to the playoffs, this is the hardest hockey you’re going to see all season long. If you’re not all in, you’re not going to have success, you’re going to be chasing games, and I thought those last couple (of games) weren’t how we needed to play.”

Make sure to watch the Jets pregame show "The Check In" at 11 CT or watch it later on YouTube, X or Facebook.

Kyle Connor opened the scoring for Winnipeg in Saturday’s win for his 30th goal of the season. With the marker, Connor achieved his eighth 30-goal season, passing Ilya Kovalchuk (7) for the most in franchise history. Connor became the seventh U.S.-born player to record eight 30-goal seasons, joining Joe Mullen (10), Pat LaFontaine (9), Mike Modano (9), Keith Tkachuk (9), Auston Matthews (9), and Tony Amonte (8).

“Yeah, I don't know if I really have a good answer. It's just overall. I mean, health obviously plays a big part of it. If you limit the games, it's just mathematics. You're not gonna have as many chances,” said Connor.

“And it’s, we've had a lot of good teams, and I've been fortunate to play with a lot of great players, like we talked about Scheifele, and he's probably assisted on almost all of us. He's just a great player, before that, Blake Wheeler, and I was just very fortunate to play with great teammates, and Josh Morrissey as well on the power play.”

The Blues come into town on fire with a 7-2-1 record in their last ten games and sit with 64 points, the same as the Jets.

"Yeah, they're playing good again. It's a little bit like last year, where they go on a tear in the second half. They're playing well. They've won some big games in some big buildings. We know them — they're another Central Division team — we know how they go about their business,” said Arniel.

“They've also made some big changes since the deadline; they got some guys that are working hard. They got a push going on, looking for the playoffs themselves. They're right around us; we got to continue to make sure we take care of business."

The Blues made some big moves at the trade deadline shipping out their captain Brayden Schenn, defenceman Justin Faulk for multiple draft picks including two firsts.

In Winnipeg’s last meeting against St. Louis, they pulled out a 3-1 victory despite only recording 16 shots on goal. This marked the lowest shot total in a Jets win in the history of the matchup as they were previously 0- 6-0 against St. Louis all-time when recording 20 or fewer shots.

Puck drop is scheduled for 2 CT.