St. Louis @ Winnipeg preview

Last Meeting ( Apr 10, 2019 ) St. Louis 2, Winnipeg 1

There were plenty of questions on how rookie Jordan Binnington would handle the Stanley Cup playoffs, but the St. Louis Blues goaltender limited the Winnipeg Jets to one goal while helping his team steal Wednesday's opening game of the series on the road. The Blues enter Game 2 on Friday with a chance to come home up 2-0 in the first-round series thanks in part to Binnington, who made 24 saves and kept his team in it until St. Louis scored twice in the game’s final 16 minutes.

“That buzzer couldn’t have come sooner,” Binnington told reporters after an eventful playoff debut, which began with him drawing an interference penalty on Jets leading goal-scorer Mark Schefiele in the game’s opening minute and concluded with him stopping a Scheifele one-timer with 12.4 seconds to play. For the Jets, the opener continued a disturbing trend of blowing third-period leads as Winnipeg could not hold a 1-0 advantage in the final 20 minutes, allowing Tyler Bozak’s game-winning goal with just 2:05 to play. The Jets lost nine games in the regular season that they led after two periods and, after Patrik Laine’s first-period goal, Winnipeg’s high-powered offense was shut down by Binnington. “They made one more play than we did,” Jets captain Blake Wheeler told the media afterward. “They sprung a couple. We’d like to clean that up.”

TV: 9:30 p.m. ET, CNBC, Sportsnet, TVA, FS Midwest (St. Louis)

ABOUT THE BLUES: David Perron netted St. Louis’ first goal 4:05 into the third period and Bozak finished with a team-high six shots on goal as the Blues got great work outside their high-scoring top line of Vladimir Tarasenko, Ryan O’Reilly and Brayden Schenn (no points on five shots). Binnington made two saves and St. Louis blocked three shots in the final two minutes. St. Louis played better as Game 1 unfolded, putting 10 shots on goal in the final period after combining for just 16 shots in the opening two periods.

ABOUT THE JETS: Goaltender Connor Hellebuyck made 24 saves but could not hold off the Blues in the final period, losing his fifth consecutive playoff start (dating back to four straight losses against Vegas last season). Laine scored his first goal in seven games and just his second in his past 20 contests, but the Jets finished with only 25 shots - seven coming in the final period. Bryan Little and Dustin Byfuglien assisted on the Laine goal, while Nikolaj Ehlers led Winnipeg with four shots on goal.

OVERTIME

1. Jets D Josh Morrissey returned from an upper-body injury, playing 17:15 in his first game since Feb. 24.

2. St. Louis Ds Colton Parayko and Alex Pietrangelo combined for two assists, five shots on goal and three blocked shots in Game 1.

3. O’Reilly won four faceoffs in the defensive zone in the final two minutes Wednesday.

PREDICTION: Jets 3, Blues 2