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After recording 18 wins over Central Division opponents last season, the Winnipeg Jets picked up where they left off Tuesday night as they downed the St. Louis Blues 4-2 in their first divisional game of the 2023-24 season.
Neither team found the back of the net in the opening frame with Winnipeg outshooting the Blues 8-6.
But the Jets went to work quickly in the second, scoring two goals in 18 seconds to grab hold of the game.
The first marker came at the 2:55 mark when Cole Perfetti took the puck behind the Blues net and sent a perfect backhand pass to the slot. That’s where David Gustafsson, coming into the zone unchecked off the bench, wired one past Jordan Binnington to open the scoring.
It was Gustafsson’s second career goal and first since Nov. 27, 2019.
As the first goal was being announced in the arena, Mason Appleton struck to double the lead. Adam Lowry skated the puck out of the corner and found Appleton free in the slot, where he wired a Lowry pass past Binnington for his second of the season.
Winnipeg was in complete control for the opening half of the period as Connor Hellebuyck faced just one shot in the opening 11 minutes but he got a test shortly thereafter when Jordan Kyrou got free on a breakaway but the Jets goalie turned him aside.
Kyrou would get another breakaway later in the period and again Hellebuyck rose to the challenge, but the Blues started to tilt the ice in their favour, earning a pair of late-period power plays.
On the first attempt, the Jets wound up with the best chance when Lowry got free on a breakaway shorthanded but Binnington denied him.
On the second man advantage, the Blues finally scored their first power play goal of the season when Pavel Buchnevich redirected a Brayden Schenn pass over the shoulder of Hellebuyck to make it 2-1 after 40 minutes.
The Blues earned their third power play of the night early in the third but it didn’t last two minutes before they were assessed a minor of their own, and shortly into 4-on-4 play the Jets restored their two-goal lead.
After St. Louis won the faceoff in their own end, they turned it over to Nate Schmidt along the blue line. He found Kyle Connor in the slot, who eluded coverage before ripping a shot top-shelf to make it 3-1 Jets.
Still trailing by two with less than four minutes to go, the Blues decided to pull Binnington to try and mount a rally and it paid immediate dividends.
Josh Morrissey turned the puck over behind his own net and a centering pass bounced off the skate of Appleton right to the stick of Robert Thomas, parked alone near the front of the net. He made no mistake to cut the lead to one with 3:23 to go.
Binnington was pulled again with just under 90 seconds remaining but this time the Jets were able to dodge disaster. Mark Scheifele found Morgan Barron streaking down the ice and Barron sealed the win with an empty-netter.
Winnipeg improves to 3-3 on the season while the Blues drop to 2-2-1. Hellebuyck made 18 saves in the win while Binnington turned aside 26 shots in defeat.
The Jets now head on the road to face the Detroit Red Wings Thursday night in Motown. Pregame coverage on 680 CJOB begins at 4 p.m. with the puck dropping just after 6 p.m.
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