St. Louis Blues at Winnipeg Jets

Connor Hellebuyck stops 18, helps Jets beat the Blues 4-2

“(Hellebuyck) made some good saves, some really good saves,” said Blues coach Craig Berube. “We missed some wide-open nets, didn’t get them in there. To me, he made big saves, but we didn’t make it hard enough on him.”

Kyle Connor, Mason Appleton and David Gustafsson scored for the Jets and Morgan Barrons added an empty-netter with 1:10 left.

Robert Thomas and Pavel Buchnevich scored for St. Louis. Netminder Jordan Binnington made 26 saves on 29 shots for St. Louis.

It was the Jets first game without head coach Rick Bowness, who took a leave of absence after his wife, Judy, suffered a seizure on Sunday. She has since been sent home.

Interim Jets coach Scott Arniel was asked if the team dedicated the game to Rick and Judy Bowness.

“They talked about making sure they got out and not let him down,” Arniel said. “They wanted to do it for all of the right reasons. Like we said, we’re a family here and we care about each other, and they care about Rick and Judy.

“They wanted to put their best foot forward and I thought they did a great job of it. I said this morning, big divisional opponent and our first opponent of the year and it’s a big one.”

Appleton concurred.

“This game certainly is dedicated to them,” he said. “Bones (Bowness) knows that we are all here for him and we are all here for Judy as well. We are happy that she is doing better. Obviously, there is a bit of recovery ahead, but Bones knows that we are going to do our job here. We are going to play as hard as we can for him and her.

“We are going to keep this thing going and whenever the time is right for Bones to come back and Judy is 100% healthy, then that day will come. But, right now, we are just praying for him, thinking about him. We still have a job to do. It’s tough. It’s how the world works sometimes, but you can call this win for her, for sure.”

Thomas pulled St. Louis to within one goal with Binnington pulled for an extra attacker with 3:33 left in the game.

“As a whole, I thought we did a lot of real good things,” Arniel said. “We talked this morning about how good St. Louis is on the rush and we saw that, especially the top line."

The Jets opened the scoring with a pair of goals just 18 seconds apart early in the second period. Gustafsson unleashed a one-timer past Binnington on a set from forward Cole Perfetti from behind the net. Appleton hit just 18 seconds later.

Game notes
During the first period, the Jets announced that Judy Bowness, Rick’s wife, is home from the hospital and resting. … Winnipeg center Mark Scheifele was riding a five-game point streak heading into Tuesday’s game. It was the first time he has started a season with a five-game point streak. … Jets defenseman Josh Morrissey had five assists heading into the game, which had tied him for first among NHL defensemen.

UP NEXT

Blues: At Calgary Flames on Thursday in the second game of a four-game trip.

Jets: At Detroit Red Wings on Thursday.

WPG leads series 1-0