Stanley Cup Playoffs Day 14: Blues chase Hellebuyck again to force Game 7

The Stanley Cup Playoffs are back, which means that for the next two months, we’ll get non-stop exciting action in the NHL as we witness history in another team looking to win a championship. Here at Daily Faceoff, we’ll be keeping you in the loop of everything that happened in the playoffs, every day until the Stanley Cup is hoisted in June.

Today, it was a much lighter night with only two series’ left in action in the first round, and only one game on the slate for Friday night. The Winnipeg Jets looked to finally win on the road and close out the series (and Connor Hellebuyck looked to put in a much better performance in net), while the St. Louis Blues needed to extend their home winning streak to keep their season alive.

To start the first period, it was a relatively normal game, although it was far from the Jets’ best performance, as they were outshot 8-2 and allowed the lone goal of the frame to Philip Broberg. It looked like the Jets were going to get back into the game in the second when Cole Perfetti tied the game, but the Blues completely took over in the second half of the middle period. Not only did the Jets fail to register a shot during that stretch of time, the Blues scored four goals as well, including three in 2:06 to change the scope of the game from 1-1 to 4-1.

As a result of the now 5-1 score, Hellebuyck found himself out of the game once again at the start of the third period. Nino Niederreiter scored a power play goal to make it 5-2, but at that point it was more or less garbage time. The most interesting event of the third was actually a fight between Justin Faulk and Josh Morrissey, one that led to plenty of other players getting involved.

But that was about all of the action in the third. The Blues held on to the 5-2 win and force a Game 7 in Winnipeg, which will happen on Sunday at 7 p.m. EST. There weren’t any standout performances in the game, as it was more of a team effort from St. Louis for the win, but we did see a Blues franchise broken, as Cam Fowler’s 10th point with his goal to make it 4-1 set a team record for points by a defenseman in a single series.