WINNIPEG — Kyle Connor smiled when asked if he was only scoring game-winners in the playoffs.
“Yeah, I’ll take it,” the Winnipeg Jets top winger said Monday after another timely goal.
Connor scored his second consecutive game-winner in the third period and Mark Scheifele had a goal and assist to propel Winnipeg to a 2-1 victory over the St. Louis Blues and a two-game lead in their opening-round playoff series.
It was the first time in three NHL seasons the Jets have started with a 2-0 series lead in the Western Conference best-of-seven contest. The past two years, Winnipeg won the first game and then lost the next four to be eliminated.
Game 3 is Thursday in St. Louis.
Did it provide a mental boost to get over that Game 2 hump?
“I don’t know if it’s a mental boost, but we’re aware of it coming into it,” Connor said. “I think over the past couple of years, this group is motivated.
"We talked about it over the off-season, we preached about it all year, it’s in this room. Everybody needs to be better, bear down, it’s dragging everybody into the fight. Yeah it’s a second win, but we’re not resting here. We’ve got a long ways to go.”
A fan favourite, his KC initials often spark fans to dress up as Colonel Sanders of KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) fame. One of those fans held a sign inside Canada Life Centre asking for a hockey stick in exchange for a chicken drumstick.
Connor made it 2-1 at 1:43 of the third period after getting a feed out front by Cole Perfetti at the side of the net.
In Winnipeg’s 5-3 victory last Saturday, Connor's goal with 1:36 remaining in the third gave the team a 4-3 lead.
Connor Hellebuyck made 21 saves in front of a full house of 15,225 loud, white-clad fans.
Taking a 2-0 lead in the series wasn’t cause for celebration by Jets head coach Scott Arniel.
"This is all (about) Game 3 now,” Arniel said. “We'll do our post-game work tomorrow or over the next couple of days here. The guys know how hard it is, now.”
Rookie Jimmy Snuggerud scored his first playoff goal and Jordan Binnington stopped 20 shots for eighth-seeded St. Louis.
“Winnipeg has made one more play than us. Both games,” Blues head coach Jim Montgomery said. “Shots are dead even, so they're just making one more play, and their best players are making them.”
Scheifele escaped Blues defenceman Cam Fowler behind the St. Louis net and sent the puck to Perfetti to feed Connor.
“Scheif is so smart when it comes to that, body positioning, getting inside a guy or just making a little poke on the puck,” Perfetti said. “And he was able to get the guy's stick and then make just a little poke. That was all that he needed for the puck to come to me and create that little bit of space.”
The Blues continued their hitting ways from the first game’s loss and the Jets didn’t back down.
Within the first minute of Monday’s tilt, St. Louis skaters delivered five hits. Winnipeg responded with a pair of their own.
Six-foot-seven Jets defenceman Logan Stanley later crushed Jordan Kyrou into the boards. The forward carefully went to the bench with about seven minutes remaining in the period.
Blues captain Brayden Schenn, who had seven hits in the first period of Game 1, skated across the ice and flew into Jets captain Adam Lowry. He finished with four hits in the period and five overall.
Winnipeg ended up out-hitting the visitors 33-29.
“After the game you go home and you feel sore, but it’s a good sore, and a good tired,” said Jets defenceman Luke Schenn, who had seven hits. “You know, when you come away with the win, it obviously doesn’t hurt as much.”
Scheifele scored on a great effort to get around a St. Louis defender and then fired a backhand from the slot. The puck bounced off Snuggerud into the net with 3:28 left.
Winnipeg didn’t capitalize on two power plays, but the Blues cashed in on their first one.
Snuggerud sent the puck high over Hellebuyck’s blocker side on the man advantage with two seconds remaining in the first frame to make it 1-1.
Montgomery had flipped Snuggerud and left-winger Jake Neighbours for the game, moving the former University of Minnesota star from the second line to the top one with centre Robert Thomas and Pavel Buchnevich. He said the motive was to produce more offence.
St. Louis got its fourth straight power play six minutes after Connor’s goal, but Winnipeg’s defenders killed it.
SWITCHING SETTINGS
As the series moves to St. Louis, the Blues will try to capitalize on their 24-14-3 regular-season home record, including 12 consecutive victories.
The Jets went 3-1 against the Blues in their four-game regular-season series, winning two matches in Missouri.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 21, 2025.
Judy Owen, The Canadian Press
