With the red-hot St. Louis Blues coming to town riding a 12-game winning streak, and the Winnipeg Jets coming off of a disappointing 4-1 loss to Utah, Monday night’s game inside Canada Life Centre was a massive game. The Jets stepped up, earning a 3-1 win over the Blues and securing their franchise-record 53rd win of the season.
There was plenty to take away from a charged night inside Canada Life Centre.
Jets dominate the red-hot Blues
The Jets have rebounded from losses quite well this season. Their last two wins (4-0 over Vegas, 3-1 over St. Louis) have been two of their better performances of the entire season when accounting for the quality of their opponent.
The high-danger chances in this one were 17-4 in favour of the Jets, as four high-danger chances against are tied for their third-lowest allowed in a single game all season long.
The Jets out-shot-attempted the Blues in the first period 31-8. They had complete control of the puck and their Hart-Trophy-contending goaltender wasn’t asked to do much throughout the night.
What was most impressive from Winnipeg’s puck possession and offensive zone time, was their ability to do it in the third period, even when up by a goal.
Let’s try this for a Winnipeg sports analogy: Picture Brady Oliveira of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers smacking his helmet after a big run, as the Bombers go on a 10+ play drive to kill the clock in the fourth quarter.
Well, the Jets put forward their equivalent of “killing the clock” last night, helmet smacking aside, as after Iafallo’s goal to make it 2-1, the Jets spent the entirety of the remaining even-strength minutes in St. Louis’ zone.
Photo Credit: Colby Spence (Illegal Curve)
Here’s Scott Arniel postgame, who highlighted the top line’s ability to spend the majority of the game in the o-zone: “The zone time for our top guys, they were in their end of the rink and forcing them to defend. When you can force the opposition’s top six forwards to play in their end of the rink, it goes a long way towards success.”
Josh Morrissey continues his elite play
In a game with big stakes on home ice, Josh Morrissey came to play, as he logged 25:45 of time on ice and was incredibly effective in his minutes.
He was commanding the offensive blue line effectively, making precise exit passes, carrying the puck out of his zone, absorbing hits to make plays, playing structured defence throughout the night, and picking up an assist on Barron’s goal to open the scoring.
Photo Credit: Colby Spence (Illegal Curve)
With Josh Morrissey on the ice at five-on-five last night, the Jets led in the following categories:
- Goals: 1-0
- Shot attempts: 26-13
- Scoring chances: 11-4
- High-danger chances: 8-0
- Expected goals percentage: 85.49%
(#s via Natural Stat Trick)
With big games down the stretch and the playoffs approaching, Morrissey’s minutes per game are about to rise, and dominating north of 25 minutes against one of the NHL’s best teams in the past two months is worth recognizing.
Morgan Barron chips in from the fourth line
Morgan Barron shifted to the middle of the ice after the Jets acquired Brandon Tanev at the trade deadline. He is looking more comfortable by the game, and last night against St. Louis, he opened the scoring on what was an incredibly powerful goal from the Jets’ fourth-line centre.
Arniel loved what he saw on that goal specifically from Barron: “I like that move, instead of bailing out and going behind the net, he sticks his leg out and drives inside. Those, for a big power forward, you like to see guys do that.”
Photo Credit: Colby Spence (Illegal Curve)
Barron was injured last season and not an option for Rick Bowness in round one of the playoffs. This season, Arniel and the Jets’ coaching staff are counting on Barron to be a key depth centre for them throughout their playoff run.
“He’s taken on this role and he’s embraced it,” Arniel said about Barron shifting to centre. “Shown us a lot of really good things. Strong on draws. You see more of his speed, it seems to come out of the middle, you see a lot more of his speed. Just doing the right things. Playing heavy, playing hard.”
Records, records, and more records
As mentioned earlier in the article, the Jets picked up their franchise-record 53rd win of the season last night, surpassing the 52-win totals from 2017-18 and 2023-24.
When asked about it, Arniel maintained the “one game at a time” approach that they have taken so often this season.
“It’s gratifying, but it’s stuff for after the year,” Arniel said after the win. “We’re still after something here, we’re still trying to get that division, and this was another step towards it. It’s amazing that we’re at win 53 and we still haven’t clinched the division, that’s how good our division is.”
It wasn’t the only franchise record reached, as with the empty-net goal, Adam Lowry secured a new career-high in goals (16). Lowry’s now up to 33 points on the season, closing in on his career high of 36, which he reached in 2022-23.
Photo Credit: Colby Spence (Illegal Curve)
“Real happy for him,” Arniel said. “Obviously he does an awful lot for us. Lot of heavy lifting, a lot of the leadership role and then to have a year like this, that’s been great. He’s had some great looks in the last three or four weeks and just to finally see him get it, that’s great.”
While records were broken, records were also matched. Mark Scheifele also tied his career-high in points with 84, and Connor Hellebuyck matched his career-high for wins in a season with 44.
Up next
This sets up one of the biggest regular season games in franchise history on Thursday, April 10, as the Jets hunt down their first-ever Central Division title. They’ll take on the Dallas Stars, in Dallas, who they currently hold a five-point lead over in the standings with the Stars having one game in hand.
Stay tuned to Illegalcurve.com for all the news you need heading into that game, and tune into the postgame show afterward on the IC YouTube channel. And reminder that you can join us for an IC Watch Party at Boston Pizza on Taylor starting at 7 PM CDT.
