ST. LOUIS (AP) Patrik Laine has felt good about his game of late, even though he hasn’t been getting a lot of goals. His reward finally came on Tuesday night.
The 18-year-old rookie scored twice and Mark Scheifele had a goal and an assist as the Winnipeg Jets beat the St. Louis Blues 5-2 for their season-high fifth straight victory.
Laine hadn’t scored since missing a game on March 26 with the flu. He finally feels all the way back.
“Now I saw that I can still score, and the skills, they are there, but hopefully I can just produce some good things on the ice the last couple of games and score a couple of goals,” Laine said.
Mark Stuart and Nikolaj Ehlers also had a goal and an assist apiece for the Jets, who swept the five-game season series against the Blues for the first time in franchise history. Blake Wheeler, Bryan Little and Mathieu Perreault each had two assists, and Michael Hutchinson made 24 saves for Winnipeg.
“I think they bring out the best in us,” Wheeler said. “Our preparation coming into a game against St. Louis, we know what kind of game it’s going to be. It’s going to be a tough matchup.”
Alex Pietrangelo and Jori Lehtera scored for the Blues, who had their season-best point streak snapped at nine games. Jake Allen made 20 saves before being pulled for Carter Hutton in the third period.
The Jets scored three times in 62-second span early in the second.
“We poured it on right there at the start of the second,” Wheeler said. “We were able to turn the tide of the game right there.”
Laine tied the score on a rebound at 1:47, and Ehlers gave the Jets the lead on a wraparound at 2:01. Stuart made it 3-1 when his slap shot bounced off a pair of Blues players and deflected over Allen into the net at 2:49.
“I don’t even really know how it went in,” Stuart said. “I have to see the replay. It took a few bounces, I know that.”
Lehtera got the Blues back into it at 4:38 of the second, cutting Winnipeg’s lead to 3-2. Lehtera, who hadn’t scored since Feb. 16, missed the previous 12 games with a concussion.
Scheifele gave the Jets an insurance goal at 4:48 of the third. Allen initially appeared to make a dazzling glove save on Scheifele’s shot, but Winnipeg challenged and the replay showed the momentum of the shot carried Allen’s glove across the goal line.
Allen wasn’t exactly convinced.
“Apparently, we’ve got satellites in Mars that can see that, or it could have been a different game,” Allen said. “It was a tough angle to get to, but the league did their thing. I have no control on the review. You don’t really hope for nothing unless you are sure it was not in the net. It was right there, but how they could actually see the puck … I never saw a replay.”
Laine’s second goal of the game chased Allen at 9:02 of the third.
“I didn’t think we made things difficult on them at all with how we defended, how we attacked,” Blues coach Mike Yeo said. “We were too easy to defend tonight.”
Pietrangelo gave the Blues a 1-0 lead just 35 seconds into the game. Pietrangelo stopped a clearing attempt and followed his initial backhand shot with a rebound for his career-high 13th goal.
The last time the Blues gave up five goals was Jan. 31 against the Jets.
“You still live your losses at this time of year and you don’t get to enjoy your wins, but we had a focusing job to do today and we got it done,” Winnipeg coach Paul Maurice said.
NOTES: Lehtera (head) rejoined the lineup, making Blues forward Dmitrij Jaskin a healthy scratch. … Jets D Tyler Myers (lower body), out since Nov. 11, took part in the morning skate but did not play. … Blues forward Alexander Steen notched his 162nd goal with the Blues on Sunday, surpassing Jorgen Pettersson as the highest-scoring Swede in franchise history.
UP NEXT
Jets: At the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday.
Blues: At the Florida Panthers on Thursday.
Photo credit – Bill Boyce / Associated Press / St. Louis, MO
