ST. LOUIS — Pierre-Luc Dubois scored twice and had an assist for the Winnipeg Jets in a 5-2 win against the St. Louis Blues at Enterprise Center on Thursday.
Dubois has 12 points (five goals, seven assists) during a seven-game point streak.
“The last couple of games has been the best he’s played,” Winnipeg coach Rick Bowness said. “He really has been strong on the puck. He’s been good defensively. Been great [on] the power play.
“His line (with Kyle Connor and Michael Eyssimont) has been outstanding for us. So, this is the best I’ve seen him play and we’re just going to keep pushing him because he can be a dominant center in this league.”
Blake Wheeler had a goal and an assist, Mark Scheifele had two assists to reach 600 NHL points, Neal Pionk had two assists and Connor Hellebuyck made 29 saves for the Jets (17-7-1), who have won three in a row and six of seven, outscoring opponents 33-16. They play at the Chicago Blackhawks on Friday.
Robert Thomas scored, and Thomas Greiss made 15 saves for the Blues (12-15-0), who have lost seven of nine after winning seven in a row. They have allowed four or more goals in nine straight games.
“It’s the same story every time,” Thomas said. “Yeah, it’s frustrating.”
“If everybody doesn’t come to the rink ready to really compete and move your feet and do things right, and be detailed and attentive, we’re not going to go anywhere,” St. Louis coach Craig Berube said. “That’s the bottom line. As a coaching staff, we’re preparing them.
“We tell them what they need to do against this team, look for it, this is what you’ve got to do, but we can’t go out and play for them. They have to go out and play as a team, and right now, we’re not doing it. We’re not doing it enough, we’re not consistent enough 100 percent. You lose in this league.”
Dubois gave Winnipeg a 1-0 lead at 15:49 of the first period after Logan Stanley‘s shot was wide but picked up by Scheifele, who fed Dubois in front before beating Greiss inside the near post.
Connor made it 2-0 just 27 seconds into the second period, skating in alone from the right side and snapping a shot past Greiss.
Wheeler extended the lead to 3-0 at 4:06 with a power-play goal, knocking in a rebound in the crease after Scheifele’s one-timer from the outer left hash marks.
“I think we’re getting a lot of flex to the net,” Wheeler said. “There’s a lot more movement, and that just makes us dangerous.”
Thomas cut it to 3-1 at 18:36 when he beat Hellebuyck from the left circle on the short side with a wrist shot. Vladimir Tarasenko powered the puck behind the net and fed Thomas with a backhand pass.
Dubois made it 4-1 at 7:39 of the third, beating Greiss on the short side from a bad angle after a burst up the left side.
Josh Leivo cut the lead to 4-2 at 10:43 on a backdoor tap-in from a pass by Ryan O’Reilly.
“We made a push,” O’Reilly said. “We were down a few going into the third and came out, we did things well and they got a lucky break on [their fourth goal]. It definitely deflated us a bit, but we stuck with it and we kept going.
“We had some good opportunities to get one of those in and make it a one-goal game. You could tell they would have been very tight and could have had a chance. It’s tough being in that situation.”
Cole Perfetti scored an empty-net goal at 18:07 for the 5-2 final.
“We just have a ton of respect for [St. Louis] and we come into games with them knowing how we have to play the game,” Wheeler said. “I felt like, at times, we were kind of just trying to survive out there. That’s when they got the momentum back. Shift after shift, they come at you.”
NOTES: Scheifele has 245 goals and 355 assists in 667 NHL regular-season games. … Wheeler has 14 points (four goals, 10 assists) over his past 10 games. … Winnipeg defenseman Josh Morrissey had an assist to give him 12 points (four goals, eight assists) in the past nine games. … Connor has 12 points (six goals, six assists) in the past eight games. … Hellebuyck has won six starts in a row. … Jets forward Saku Maenalanen suffered an upper-body injury in the first period and did not return; Bowness said he will be reevaluated when the Jets return to Winnipeg on Saturday. … Thomas has five points (two goals, three assists) in a five-game point streak. … St. Louis forward Pavel Buchnevich (lower-body injury) and defenseman Torey Krug (upper body) each missed his second straight game. They are day to day.
