Season series: The St. Louis Blues won three of five games against the Winnipeg Jets last season. Each team won 2-1 in a shootout at MTS Centre. St. Louis defenseman Alex Pietrangelo had a team-leading five assists in five games; forward Andrew Ladd had a goal and three assists for the Jets.
Blues team scope: St. Louis continues a season-high six-game road trip without forward Paul Stastny. He sustained a lower-body injury in the Blues' 4-3 win against the Vancouver Canucks on Friday and has returned to St. Louis, according to the Blues website. Stastny has a goal and four assists in his first five games and his status will be updated after the road trip, which ends after a game Tuesday against the Montreal Canadiens. Since losing the first game of the trip, the Blues have three consecutive wins. Goaltender Jake Allen played Friday, and Brian Elliott is expected to start in net Saturday. Forward Scott Gomez made his season debut Friday and forward Ryan Reaves was a healthy scratch for the first time this season.
Jets team scope: Winnipeg continues its six-game home stand and plays a Central Division opponent for the first time this season. "We know they are going to be a good team," Jets forward Mark Scheifele said after practice Saturday. "They have a lot of skill, they play a hard defensive game and we know it will be a tough test for us." Defenseman Ben Chiarot (undisclosed) practiced Saturday, but will not play Sunday, according to the Jets website. Coach Paul Maurice also did not disclose his starting goaltender for Sunday. Goaltenders Ondrej Pavelec and Michael Hutchinson have alternated starts through the first five games, with Pavelec starting the most recent game, a 3-1 win against the Calgary Flames on Friday.
Winnipeg never has housed a team that won five of its first six games, even when the first edition of the Jets called the city home.
The St. Louis Blues, meanwhile, are on the verge of accomplishing that feat for the third time in four years.
Winnipeg looks to win its third straight while snapping the Blues' three-game winning streak as its homestand continues Sunday.
The Jets are off to a 4-1-0 start after finishing with a franchise-best 99 points and making their first playoff appearance since relocating from Atlanta in 2011. They won three of a season-opening four-game road trip before kicking off a six-game homestand with Friday's 3-1 victory over Calgary.
It's the franchise's best start since the Thrashers also won four of five to open the 2008-09 campaign.
Dustin Byfuglien scored the go-ahead goal with 1:28 left in the third period before Blake Wheeler added an empty-netter for his team-leading seventh point. Byfuglien has two goals and two assists, recording a point in four separate games.
"He's a guy that's fun to watch when he's playing his game," forward Bryan Little said of Byfuglien. "He's just so strong and big on the puck and he shows he's got a nice pair of hands and a great shot, too.
"When he wants to take that puck to the net, there's not many guys in this league that can stop him."
It's unclear which St. Louis goaltender will have that responsibility. Brian Elliott has won all three of his starts with a 2.00 goals-against average, and Jake Allen made 31 saves in Friday's 4-3 victory over Vancouver.
The Blues (4-1-0) have scored four goals each time during a three-game win streak which spanned four nights. Alexander Steen had a goal and an assist against the Canucks, and Vladimir Tarasenko and Carl Gunnarsson added two assists apiece. Tarasenko has a point in all five games and shares the team lead with Steen at seven.
Kyle Brodziak put St. Louis ahead by three less than four minutes into the third before Vancouver made it interesting.
"You could see the effects of playing three in four nights in the last five minutes," coach Ken Hitchcock said, "but we held it together."
This will be the fifth stop on a six-game trip for St. Louis, which has started at least 5-1-0 twice in the last three seasons.
The Blues may not have top-line center Paul Stastny, though, after he left early Friday after taking a shot to the lower leg and foot area. There's been no official word on his status, and Hitchcock said Stastny, who has a goal and four assists, will be further evaluated prior to the game.
The Jets have scored 18 goals while the Blues have netted 17 to rank among the league's highest-scoring teams, and Winnipeg likely will put Ondrej Pavelec in net as it tries to slow the St. Louis attack.
Pavelec faced 74 shots in his first two starts before stopping 19 of 20 on Friday. He won his final two starts against the Blues last season, making 32 saves in a 2-1 shootout win March 19 before posting a 30-save shutout April 7.
St. Louis had won seven straight in the series prior to those contests with Elliott falling in the first and Allen losing 1-0 in the most recent. Elliott has a 1.91 GAA in his last five starts against the Jets while Allen has stopped 58 of 61 shots over two career outings against Winnipeg
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glen a richter wrote:Factoring injuries and playing in their barn, jets 4 blues 1. It's never really a contest.
I call bullshit on that. Scrappy affair. Blues prevailing 3-2 in OT.
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I guess that Hitch actually WAS telling the truth, when he said that The Blues will play more reckless on offence this season. Brodziak and even Bortuzzo are driving the net, and Bortuzzo even got a goal doing that. Gomez looked pretty good on that power play. The Blues need to have EVERYONE raise their game while Shattenkirk, Stastny and Fabbri are out. So far, they have risen to the challenge.
Robb_K wrote:I guess that Hitch actually WAS telling the truth, when he said that The Blues will play more reckless on offence this season. Brodziak and even Bortuzzo are driving the net, and Bortuzzo even got a goal doing that.
I hope they keep this up and don't abandon it as the season goes. But you're right, it has looked pretty darn impressive so far this year.
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