Blues defeat Jets, extend point streak to 4 under Montgomery

WINNIPEG — Jordan Kyrou scored two goals for the St. Louis Blues in a 4-1 win against the Winnipeg Jets at Canada Life Centre on Tuesday.

“I thought a five-guys-go mentality from our D-zone to their net was really good from the start of the game,” St. Louis coach Jim Montgomery said. “I liked how it was wave after wave. Everybody was a huge part of that win.”

Dylan Holloway and Robert Thomas each had a goal and an assist for the Blues (12-12-2), who extended their point streak to four games (3-0-1) since Montgomery was hired as coach Nov. 24. Joel Hofer made 22 saves, and Scott Perunovich had two assists.

“[Hofer] was unbelievable,” Kyrou said. “Hometown game for him and I’m sure he was fired up. He made some huge saves early in the first and in the second to keep it 0-0. That really helped us get the lead there. He was great the rest of the game as well.”

Mark Scheifele scored for the Jets (18-8-0), who have lost four straight and five of six (1-5-0). Connor Hellebuyck made 28 saves.

"We weren’t bad in the first, and then in the second we just got away from our game a little bit.” Scheifele said. “Them getting two 4-on-4 goals was tough. And they clogged it up, they played good D and it made it tough for us to get to the net. We just didn’t play our game.”

St. Louis scored twice in the second period, when it outshot Winnipeg 19-3.

“I loved our second period, but I thought our first period led to the second period,” Montgomery said. “I thought our defensive game, the entire game, I thought we were above people. We weren't giving up odd-man rushes and our checking skills were really good.”

Hofer said: “[My teammates] were great. [Winnipeg] had two or three shots, maybe. We were in their zone the whole time. We were working the goal line, getting good changes in. It was great to watch.”

Kyrou gave the Blues a 1-0 lead at 18:04 of the second. Brayden Schenn’s saucer pass found Kyrou in the slot, and although his initial shot was stopped by Hellebuyck, the rebound went in off of Scheifele’s foot.

Holloway made it 2-0 at 18:43, scoring on his own rebound following a give-and-go with Perunovich.

“That whole period we were kind of dominating them,” Kyrou said. “We had tons of chances, and chances just kept coming and coming and [Montgomery] was like, ‘We’re going to get one here the last four minutes,’ and we got two there. So it was good.”

Kyrou pushed it to 3-0 at 6:38 of the third, spinning and shooting from the high slot after Holloway passed it while sitting on the ice.

“The puck was kind of coming down the wall and I just tried to spin out off my D-man, and I kind of just fell, got tangled up,” Holloway said. “But I was just on my butt and the puck is right there and I saw sticks in there, so I was trying to kind of get it free. And then [Kyrou] made a great play kind of taking it back and then ripping it in the net.”

Scheifele cut it to 3-1 at 15:45, ending Hofer’s shutout bid in the goaltender’s hometown.

“It’s special. It’s great,” Hofer said. “The guys played so good in front of me. It’s a big game for us. We were ready to go and we’re going to try to keep this going on the road trip.”

Thomas scored into an empty net at 16:21 for the 4-1 final.

“We just really didn’t get pucks in deep until the third,” Jets defenseman Haydn Fleury said. “I thought we made the game harder on ourselves then we needed it to be and we paid for it.”

Blues defenseman Justin Faulk did not take part in warmups and was a late scratch from the lineup due to an upper-body injury. Perunovich was in the lineup in Faulk’s place.

“[Faulk] was close,” Montgomery said. “Like I said this morning, I thought he was playing. And then after the morning skate when he went in, talked to the trainers, it was, ‘He’s not going to play.’”

NOTES: The Blues won their first game against a Central Division opponent this season (1-4-0). … St. Louis has outscored its opponents 14-5 in regulation and is 9-for-9 on the penalty kill under Montgomery. … Since starting the season 15-1-0, Winnipeg is 3-7-0 and has scored one goal or fewer in six games during that span.