Jets hold off Blues for 3rd straight victory

ST. LOUIS -- Mark Scheifele had two assists, and the Winnipeg Jets held off the St. Louis Blues 3-2 at Enterprise Center on Thursday.

Alex Iafallo, Josh Morrissey and Jonathan Toews scored for the Jets (35-31-12), who have won three straight and seven of nine. Connor Hellebuyck made 20 saves. 

Winnipeg moved within two points of the Nashville Predators for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference and has played one fewer game.

“We had mentioned them being a really good rush team and the transition that comes from them, and I just felt we did a good job of trying to limit what they had,” Jets coach Scott Arniel said of the Blues. “There were some times in the second (period) where we got a little bit stubborn and we didn’t get pucks deep and kind of fed that (transition game). But all in all, it was a real good road game in a building that’s been tough for us.”

Dylan Holloway had a goal and an assist for the Blues (33-33-12), who have lost two straight and four of six. Jordan Binnington made 31 saves.

St. Louis is six points behind Nashville and has a game in hand.

“We seemed to have lost how fast we played north and how quickly we were attacking their net,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery said. “A problem last game (a 3-1 loss to the Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday) and today’s game is us taking away east-west plays in our own end. That’s something we’ve got to improve upon here and work on tomorrow.”

Holloway made it 1-0 for St. Louis at 4:56 of the first period with a power-play goal. He took a no-look, between-the-legs pass from Robert Thomas and beat Hellebuyck with a wrist shot from the right face-off circle to the short side.

Iafallo tied it 1-1 at 9:24, scoring from in front off Scheifele’s pass from below the goal line on the right side.

Morrissey saved what would have been Holloway’s second of the game at 13:59. Holloway dangled around Hellebuyck and tried to stuff the puck in, but Morrissey kept it out at the goal line with his stick.

“I mean, just this time of year is desperation hockey, so try to keep (it) out of the net,” Morrissey said. “And you know what? Thankfully, it didn’t go in.”

Morrissey put the Jets ahead 2-1 at 14:11 of the second period, scoring on a rebound in the slot after Binnington stopped Jacob Bryson’s shot from the left point.

“We hadn't had a lot of success on in-zone offense in the first three games against them, and we talked about it a little bit at practice yesterday (about) how we could implement a few different things, and we had some good movement,” Morrissey said. ‘They're a team that's been playing really well defensively and offensively, and we were able to generate a little bit in zone that, like I said, we hadn't had earlier against them. So it was good.”

Toews then made it 3-1 at 15:51. He scored on a one-timer from the bottom of the right circle after Cole Perfetti brought the puck out from behind the net and passed across the slot.

“Just not taking care of the weak side of the ice,” Montgomery said, referring to the two late second-period goals. “With man-on-man coverage, we should have that part of the ice taken care of. The second goal in particular, the Toews goal … we had four guys on the strong side of the ice and no one on the weak side. We had (Tyler Tucker) there, but he had a broken stick.”

Colton Parayko cut it to 3-2 on the rush at 13:00 of the third period. He took a pass from Jordan Kyrou in the right circle and sent a wrist shot past Hellebuyck to the glove side.

The Blues couldn’t find the tying goal.

“We had some good chances for sure,” Parayko said. “We generated some good opportunities. (Hellebuyck) made some good saves and they had some stick luck and things like that. We definitely had our chances and put things towards the net too.”

The Jets, who were 4-for-5 on the penalty kill, held firm following a high-sticking penalty on Morrissey with 2:34 remaining, even after the Blues pulled Binnington for an extra attacker with about 1:25 to play.

“First of all, hats off to our penalty kill,” Arniel said. “I know we gave up one early, but our penalty kill was really solid in the second and third where it really needed to be.

“We went to get aggressive on the (Holloway) goal and we left the middle open, which they were obviously trying to get it to. After that, we didn’t allow any of that stuff to really get inside there. The stuff that was coming was coming from the outside. We did a good job with our sticks, with our lanes. The other side for me was that we did a good job with our clears.”

NOTES: Scheifele has 16 points (three goals, 13 assists) in his past eight games. He also is one point from his first 100-point season in the NHL (34 goals, 65 assists in 78 games). … Morrissey has nine points (two goals, seven assists) in his past nine games. … Thomas, whose four-game goal streak (six goals) ended, extended his point streak to seven games (six goals, six assists) and tied Al MacInnis for fifth in Blues history with 325 assists. … Holloway has 13 points (five goals, eight assists) in his past eight games.