GAMEDAY: Blues at Jets Game 2

WINNIPEG – One thing about the postseason, as good as you were in the last game, you have to do it all over again in the next one.

The Winnipeg Jets played a perfect third period in Game 1 of their best-of-seven matchup with the St. Louis Blues on Saturday and it helped them to a 5-3 victory and a 1-0 series lead.

The Jets crowd was loud and perhaps that led to the nerves that some of the players were working through during the start to the playoffs.

“Yeah, it’s obviously an exciting time, and the fans were into it, which is awesome,” said Dylan Samberg, who played in his 11^th career playoff game.

“And it's pretty nerve wracking playing in the first period like that, but we got through it. And as the game went along, we got more comfortable and started playing, playing our game.”

Scott Arniel and the coaching staff have done a great job building the system that pushed this team to the top of the standings and while it took some time for the team to get going, they relied on that system to a third period comeback win.

“We weren’t very good in the first and second got better, and the third, it was back to what we were talking about, playing good hockey. You can't get to this time of year and all of a sudden decide you're gonna play a different way,” said Arniel.

“Those are all the things that we've been talking about, harping about for the 82 games, that when we got to this point, that we need to play that way, and we'll have success when doing it.”

The Jets will have their morning skate at 9:30 CT, they had an optional skate on Sunday. Looks like there won't be any changes to the lineup for Game 2.

Make sure you watch the pregame show on X, YouTube and Facebook at 12:30 CT.

One place where the Jets are hoping to get better at, is their penalty kill. St. Louis took 1-0 and 3-2 leads courtesy of their power play, Winnipeg gave up two power play goals in a game for only the third time in their last 43 games. The two previous times ended up being losses.

“But penalty kill, we've got to, you know, we've got over-aggressive, actually. We talked about how we kill, but we got a little bit too aggressive and we kind of left some openings,” said Arniel.

“And the penalty kill, like I said, those adjustments, power-play, there’s adjustments that you have to make as the series moves on. We’ll look at that stuff and hopefully those areas we’ll be a little bit better.”

If something feels familiar, you are not wrong. Winnipeg has won three straight Game 1’s in the postseason. Now they are hoping to go out and win Game 2, something they haven’t done the last two playoffs.

“I don’t talk about that, the last two playoff years, because this is a different animal, a different year. But we have talked about all season long (is) the next game,” said Arniel.

“Did some homework (Sunday), did some post-game review, looked at some video. Have some things we’ll throw in to (Monday’s) meeting but then push (Saturday night) aside. It’s done, it’s over, it was its own game. (Monday) will have a whole different look to it.”

Depth has been one of the things the Jets have relied on this season, even though they will be without Nikolaj Ehlers and Gabe Vilardi for another game, Winnipeg is comfortable with the group they have. The Jets got three goals from the top line, one from the third and another from the fourth line. Jaret Anderson-Dolan recorded his first playoff goal of his career in his Jets playoff debut.

“Yeah. It’s something you dream of as a kid, scoring a playoff goal. And especially in an environment like that, in the whiteout. I remember growing up watching whiteout's,” said Anderson-Dolan.

“It’s obviously a crazy environment. Our crowd and fans are so good and so supportive. It’s definitely a cool moment scoring that goal and I kind of just blacked out after it went in honestly.”

Speaking of Vilardi, he skated with the Jets on Sunday wearing a yellow non-contact jersey. Arniel was hesitant to say when he would be available to the team in this series, adding that when Vilardi starts skating in a normal coloured jersey (blue or white), that he would have that discussion.

“Yeah, it’s great to see him out there, laughing and working hard,” said Alex Iafallo.

“To see him stick-handling and shoot, it’s awesome it’s going to be big to have him back.”