Blues lose Game 5 5-3 to Jets, face elimination on Friday

Blues lose Game 5 5-3 to Jets, face elimination on Friday<a href="https://www.stltoday.com/users/profile/ttimmermann" />

Tom Timmermann, St. Louis Post-Dispatch on May 1, 2025

Published in Hockey

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WINNIPEG, Manitoba — The home team remains undefeated in the Blues-Jets series through five games, which puts the Blues in a precarious position.

The Blues lost to Winnipeg 5-3 on Wednesday night at Canada Life Centre, putting them down 3-2 in the best-of-seven series and on the brink of elimination.

Next up is Game 6 on Friday night at Enterprise Center, which will start at 7 p.m. If the series keeps going the way it is, with home teams winning, everyone will be back in Manitoba for Game 7 on Sunday, especially with the way the Blues dominated the Jets in Games 3 and 4 in St. Louis. But for the Blues to win this series, they are going to have to win in Winnipeg at some point, and now they have just one chance to do that. But first they have to get that far.

The Blues fell behind twice, got even twice, before finally falling behind by two goals in the second period. They even got a break when Winnipeg’s top offensive player, center Mark Scheifele, didn’t return to the ice for the second period. Scheifele got leveled by Brayden Schenn in the first period and finished the period, but that was it for him for the game. Winnipeg scored an empty-net goal with 3:13 to play to put the game away, though the Blues added one with 51.4 seconds left to narrow the margin.

The Blues got two goals from Nathan Walker and one from Jimmy Snuggerud. Jordan Binnington was under a lot of pressure, especially in the second period when he faced 14 shots on goal. Meanwhile, after chasing Winnipeg goalie Connor Hellebuyck from Games 3 and 4, the Blues managed just 19 shots on goal, only four in the second period, hardly testing him until the third period, when they had nine shots on goal.

Blues get even, fall behind

What looked like it might be a disaster for the Blues instead turned into the tying goal. Justin Faulk and Pavel Buchnevich messed up a breakout from behind the Blues net, turning the puck over to the Jets deep in the Blues zone. But a Winnipeg turnover put the puck on Thomas’ stick and he brought it up ice, getting it to Snuggerud on the right wing who beat Hellebuyck for his second playoff goal.

Winnipeg had yet to score in the second period in the series, but their first put them ahead. A shot from the blue line by Dylan DeMelo was headed wide but it the backside of Parayko and deflected into the net to put the Jets up 3-2.

Winnipeg extended its lead to 4-2 with 1:09 left on a late developing two-on-one that ended with Kyle Connor making a behind-the-back pass to Vladislav Namestnikov for a goal. Namestnikov was there because Scheifele was out of the game and he was taking his place centering the top line.

Wild, wild West

The first period was a wild affair with three goals, 16 penalty minutes, 34 hits and lots of pushing and shoving between the two teams.

Winnipeg took a 1-0 lead just 1:23 into the game on a goal by Kyle Connor, giving him goals in all three games in Winnipeg. Mark Scheifele slipped him in a pass to him in the slot from behind the goal and he put it past Binnington. Mason Appleton wrestled a puck from Jimmy Snuggerud behind the net and managed to kick it Scheifele for the pass.

The Blues responded just over two minutes later when Walker tipped in a shot by Colton Parayko. The Blues had some extended zone time and kept getting the puck to Parayko for a shot. He took four in that stretch, though he got credit for only three because of Walker’s tip. It was Walker’s first career playoff goal.

Winnipeg retook the lead on a deflection by Nino Niederreiter shortly after the Blues had killed off a power play. Brayden Schenn had leveled Scheifele along the boards and was immediately descended on by four Winnipeg player. Schenn got two two-minute penalties, one for interference and one for roughing, while Winnipeg’s Brandon Tanev got two for roughing and the Jets got a power play.

The Blues almost scored a short-handed goal by Oskar Sundqvist was robbed by Hellebuyck on a two-on-one with Walker, and then a few seconds later, Gabriel Vilardi of Winnipeg was called for interference but Sundqvist was called for embellishment, negating a potential power play.

A scrum in front of the Blues net produced a Blues power play, but it was about as bad as a power play could be without giving up a goal, and it ended up costing the Blues even more. Colton Parayko and Luke Schenn were among the group sent off, and there were no whistles during the power play, nor in the minutes to follow, and because of the nature of their penalties, neither Schenn nor Parayko could come out of the box until play was dead. Brayden Schenn ended up being in the box for 5:24 after his four minutes of penalties had ended, and Parayko (and Luke Schenn) an additional 3:25. Because of that, Brayden Schenn played just 3:15 in the first period and Parayko 6:46.

Suter returns to lineup

The Blues made one change to their lineup, with Ryan Suter returning to the lineup because of the injury to Tyler Tucker after being a healthy scratch in Games 3 and 4. Suter partnered with Nick Leddy.