WPG@STL, Gm6: Schwartz lifts Blues with hat trick

ST. LOUIS -- Jaden Schwartz scored a hat trick, and the St. Louis Blues advanced to the Western Conference Second Round with a 3-2 win against the Winnipeg Jets in Game 6 of the first round at Enterprise Center on Saturday.

St. Louis won the best-of-7 series 4-2 and will play the Dallas Stars or Nashville Predators next. The Stars lead that series 3-2 with Game 6 at Dallas on Monday (8:30 p.m. ET; CNBC, SN1, TVAS2, FS-SW, FS-TN).
"It's nice definitely to help out and step up," Schwartz said. "We played a great team game today. We didn't give them much, we worked our butts off. Our defensemen] were great. I thought our forwards backchecked really hard and frustrated them. That was the biggest game of the year for us. We played aggressive and we were on our toes."
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Jordan Binnington made 18 saves for St. Louis, which became the first home team to win in the series.
Dustin Byfuglien had a goal and an assist, and Connor Hellebuyck made 33 saves for the Jets, who reached the Western Conference Final last season.
"It was tough. Tough to swallow," said Winnipeg forward Bryan Little, who scored late in the third period. "I think we had really high expectations for ourselves coming into the season. It just feels disappointing right now."
The Blues picked up where they left off in Game 5, which they won 3-2 by scoring three straight goals in the third period, including Schwartz's tiebreaking goal with 15 seconds left. It seemed to have a carryover effect.

Schwartz gave the Blues a 1-0 lead at 23 seconds of the first period when he poked in a loose puck behind Hellebuyck. The Jets challenged for goaltender interference, but the call on the ice stood.
"We talked about bringing that momentum from the third period from Game 5 and I think the guys did," St. Louis coach Craig Berube said. "We mentioned it yesterday, talked again today about it. I think they carried momentum over from this game and had good energy and played hard. It's a hard game out there."
The Blues outshot the Jets 16-1 in the second period to set their Stanley Cup Playoff record for fewest shots allowed in a period. It was also the fewest in a period in Jets/Atlanta Thrashers playoff history. St. Louis led 27-6 in shots through two periods.
"That's exactly what we wanted to do," Blues captain Alex Pietrangelo said. "We wanted to be hard on their top line, come out strong. Got a lot of energy after that first shift. That's a heck of an effort all around."

WPG@STL, Gm6: Schwartz gets Blues going early

Schwartz made it 2-0 at 12:36 of the second with a power-play goal on a wrist shot from the left face-off circle.
He completed the hat trick by making it 3-0 at 3:55 of the third period. It was St. Louis' first playoff hat trick since Vladimir Tarasenko had one against the Minnesota Wild in Game 2 of the first round in 2015.
Byfuglien made it 3-1 at 12:17 of the third. Little scored shorthanded with 38 seconds left for the 3-2 final after the Jets pulled Hellebuyck with Blake Wheeler serving a high-sticking penalty.
"This is a tough trophy to win," said Wheeler, the Winnipeg captain. "Maybe our best just wasn't good enough today. And their best was pretty darn good. In situations like that, you look for the resolve in your group. You look for how guys fight. And we played until the last whistle. That's the way I see it."
The Blues won Game 6 for the first time since a 2-1 victory at the San Jose Sharks in the 2001 Western Conference Quarterfinals. They had lost their past eight.
"It makes it more special (to clinch on home ice)," Binnington said. "It's one series, and it was good to win it in front of our home crowd here after losing the last two (home games). We're excited and we'll take a little rest here and prepare for the next series."

Enterprise Hat Trick: Schwartz lifts Blues by Jets

They said it

"It's hard to say what went wrong. We really shouldn't point fingers and try to find blame. They're a good team over there, and they played very well. So I guess on this one, unfortunately we have to tip our caps to them." -- Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck
"We didn't want to go back there, we wanted to win tonight in front of our home fans. They deserved it, and we wanted to win as a team. It's Saturday night, the team's going to have some fun. I think we fed off that and [the] carryover into tonight." -- Blues goalie Jordan Binnington

ThirstForTheCup: St. Louis advances to Second Round

Need to know

Schwartz's first goal was the third-fastest in Blues playoff history. Sergio Momesso (18 seconds, Game 3 of the 1990 Smythe Division Finals against the Chicago Blackhawks) and Brett Hull (20 seconds, Game 3 of the 1995 conference quarterfinals against the Vancouver Canucks) did it faster. … The Jets/Thrashers are 2-12 in playoff games decided by one goal. … Winnipeg was 10-2-0 in its previous 12 games at St. Louis.

What's next

Jets: Season over
Blues:Game 1 of Western Conference Second Round against the Dallas Stars or Nashville Predators (TBD)

Schwartz's hatty powers Blues to series-clinching win