WINNIPEG — Jordan Binnington made 39 saves and did not allow a goal on four shots in the shootout for the St. Louis Blues in a 3-2 win against the Winnipeg Jets at Canada Life Centre on Tuesday.
“[Binnington] came up big for us. He won us a game tonight,” St. Louis coach Craig Berube said. “For me tonight, he made effort saves. … He outcompeted the shooter on a lot of plays, just battling. He was excellent.”
Jordan Kyrou and Pavel Buchnevich each had a goal and an assist for the Blues (8-2-1). Ryan O’Reilly scored the only goal in the shootout.
“There was a couple times where [Binnington] was on his stomach or he was on his back and he just flung his arm up there, got a stick on it, or something,” Kyrou said. “He made unbelievable saves, and same thing in the shootout, [he] stopped all four of them.”
Kyle Connor and Neal Pionk scored for the Jets (6-3-3). Connor Hellebuyck made 31 saves, including 10 in overtime, after missing three games with a non-COVID-related illness.
“A few mistakes on my end tonight,” Hellebuyck said. “I feel I’ve gotten certain details into my game and certain bad habits out of my game, and tonight I might have crept a few of those back in. That’s just a matter of getting my mind into game speed, so tonight was a huge stepping stone for me and I’ll only improve from here.”
“You build off of that game,” Jets forward Blake Wheeler said. “That was a pretty good hockey game by our team. We had a lot of golden opportunities that we normally cash in on that we’re having a tough time on right now. But outside of that, there’s really not a whole lot you can do in an NHL game. Their goalie played good, our goalie played good. Two really good teams and we build off that one. There’s nothing to hang your head about after a game like that.”
Buchnevich gave the Blues a 1-0 lead on the power play at 18:09 of the first period.
“[Buchnevich] is really good at making these smart little passes and he’s got an unreal shot, too,” Kyrou said. “He thinks the game really well, so I think we just click in that sort of area. We both have good speed, too, so that helps.”
Pionk tied it 1-1 at 10:56 of the second period with a wrist shot from the point.
“The second and third periods were really good,” Wheeler said. “We got our feet moving, kind of woke up a little bit. The first, it wasn’t bad but was just kind of cautious, we weren’t really moving. We got going in the second.”
Connor scored his ninth goal of the season to give the Jets a 2-1 lead at 6:22 of the third period. Wheeler had an assist to become the first player in Jets/Atlanta Thrashers history to score 700 points.
“[Wheeler] has been the tone-setter for our team in all areas of our game,” Jets coach Paul Maurice said. “It’s not just the play, it’s in the practice habits and the training and the pushing. … He’s got a grace about him as a leader. I don’t think that that’s known, because if you put a camera on him 10 minutes after the game, usually he’s still grinding. But he does have a grace about him as a leader to be able to reach out.”
Kyrou tied it 2-2 at 11:54. Buchnevich had an assist for his 200th NHL point.
“I think our team is pretty resilient,” Berube said. “They believe in themselves, they believe in the team. You’re not going to have games where it’s perfect and it’s going your way. You’re going to have games where there’s times that you’re outplayed and the other team is better, but you still can hang in there and find ways to win. And that’s what we did tonight.”
NOTES: Wheeler has 229 goals and 471 assists in 767 games in 12 seasons with the Jets and 810 points (279 goals, 531 assists) in 988 NHL games in 14 seasons with the Jets and Boston Bruins. … Connor has scored three goals in the past five games and has 16 points (eight goals, eight assists) in his past 10 games. … Winnipeg has at least a point in nine of 10 games (6-1-3). … Forward David Perron played his 617th game to move past Bob Plager for 10th place in Blues history.
