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The Winnipeg Jets deserve a lot of credit for four different comebacks down a goal in Friday night’s contest against the St Louis Blues, but ultimately it was the Jets who made too many costly errors and didn’t get the goaltending they’ve been used to this season as the Blues finally finished off Winnipeg 5-4 in overtime.

First Period

It sure felt like a game being played by two teams coming off a handful of days off as neither the Jets or Blues looked overly good in the first 20 minutes. Especially so for Connor Hellebuyck who let in the game’s first goal on the first shot he faced.

The Blues seemed to have the puck on their stick a lot more than the Jets did, but it was the Jets that were the ones taking shots on goal even if they were one and done scoring chances.

It sure looked like the period was going to finish up with the Blues in the lead even with the Jets holding a 12-5 shot edge, but a last minute rush started by Josh Morrissey and ended by Gabriel Bourque evened things up.

Second Period

A bit better of a period in terms of quality of play from both sides, but it’s the Blues that are the better of the two teams early and often in the middle frame. Hellebuyck did look better stopping a series of tough chances against, but five minutes in, the Blues get another soft goal past the Jets goalie.

After killing off the first Blues power play of the game, the Jets finally get a couple of shots on the Blues goal midway through the period and as luck would have it, Kyle Connor was able to show off his fantastic in-tight shooting ability to even things up.

The Jets almost took the lead for themselves a few minutes after, but a great setup to Nikolaj Ehlers was denied by the skate of… Nikolaj Ehlers?

*sigh*

The Jets take another penalty that puts them a man down (a hooking call that Mark Scheifele wasn’t happy with, but that looked legit) and St Louis took advantage to make it a 3-2 game.

Hockey be like that sometimes.

The Blues out-shoot the Jets 15-6 in the second period as it was pretty much a role reversal from the first period.

Third Period

The Jets get an early power play to start the third period and for a brief moment it looked like the bad luck would continue for the Jets as a Mark Scheifele rush rang off the post, but Kyle Connor followed up nicely to make sure the puck found it’s way into the net this time.

No one really had much of a chance to enjoy that goal though as the Blues yet again followed up with a goal to retake the lead a little over two minutes after KC had tied things up.

The Jets pressed on but still had all kinds of issues handling the puck and connecting on passes. It seemed just as easily as they would enter the Blues end of the ice, they would either cough the puck right back up, or they’d manage a shot on goal but see any second chances taken away by Blues defenders.

Finally, with the goalie pulled the Jets managed one more push and ended up tying the game yet again.

Overtime

As you’d expect, good chances back and forth for both teams but the Jets leave their trio out on the ice a little too long and are gassed by the time Mark Scheifele loses the puck and no one can catch David Perron who has done this a few times in his career.

 

TL;DR Why the Jets Lost

Shoddy goaltending by Hellebuyck and some repeated bad mistakes on defense led to a lot of preventable Blues goals on the night. Credit the Jets for constantly scrapping to stay in the game, but they couldn’t get out of their own way most of the night.

JetsNation Top Gun

Kyle Connor is the obvious pick with a pair of goals – he could have had four really as he missed a couple of other chances during the game. Patrik Laine gets an honorable mention for having a pretty good game as well with a couple of assists and five shots.

The Boxscore

 

 

Next Flight

It won’t be long until the Jets see the Blues on the ice again, this Sunday afternoon in fact as the two teams will fly to St. Louis and play the second end of this home and home pairing. Puck drop is set for 2:00 PM CST with the game on TSN 3 and TSN 1290.