Buchnevich has hat trick, Blues score 7 in Game 3 win against Jets

ST. LOUIS -- Pavel Buchnevich scored his first Stanley Cup Playoff hat trick and had an assist for the St. Louis Blues in a 7-2 win against the Winnipeg Jets in Game 3 of the Western Conference First Round at Enterprise Center on Thursday.

St. Louis trails the best-of-7 series 2-1. Game 4 will be here on Sunday (1 p.m. ET; FDSNMW, MAX, truTV, SN, TVAS, CBC).

“We had to step up,” Blues center Robert Thomas said. “Their top players were contributing, and they were a big reason for us going down 2-0, and ‘Buchy’ stepped up right away, came out flying, and made some great plays and got us off to a great start. So, he deserves a lot of credit.”

Cam Fowler had a goal and four assists, and Thomas had four assists for the Blues, who are the second wild card from the Western Conference. Jordan Binnington made 17 saves.

“I’m thankful. I’m happy that I was able to contribute and help our team get a win,” Fowler said. “It’s a special thing for me and having my family here and being back in the playoffs, but it’s over now. It was a special night, but all it really is is one game. It helped us get back in the series and now our attention has to shift to Sunday.”

David Gustafsson and Neal Pionk scored for the Jets, who won the Presidents’ Trophy as the team with the most points in the regular season. Connor Hellebuyck allowed six goals on 25 shots before being replaced by Eric Comrie, who allowed one goal on three shots.

“It's one game. We lost one game. Whether it's 7-2 or 1-0, we lost one game in this series,” Winnipeg coach Scott Arniel said. “We lost the game in the first period. They scored two goals in the first three minutes, got on our heels, crowd got behind them. We were terrible in the first period. Game was over in the first.”

Buchnevich made it 1-0 at 48 seconds of the first period, scoring on a backdoor tap-in after Fowler’s shot off the left wall hit Jimmy Snuggerud in front.

Buchnevich then made it 2-0 at 3:11 with a power-play goal, tapping in a Thomas pass from the left circle.

“I know [Radek Faksa, Nathan Walker and Alexey Toropchenko] had a great shift, physical, the crowd got going, really loud and we just followed them,” Buchnevich said. “Second shift, we got turnover, I shot, missed the net and you know, [Fowler] hit the net and I got the rebound and the crowd got nuts and the emotions get even more and we keep going.”

Fowler made it 3-0 at 15:51. Thomas found the defenseman coming down the middle of the ice, and he beat Hellebuyck with a quick shot high to the glove side.

“We had talked a little bit about our ‘D’ trying to use our skating ability to our advantage,” Fowler said. “The play kind of developed there and I kind of saw that we had full control on the wall and I just felt like I could jump in and try and contribute to the rush a little bit and ‘Tommer’ made a great play and I just tried to get it off as quick as I could and happy to see it go in. It was more about just the mindset of our ‘D’ trying to use our legs and skate. I saw the opportunity and just tried to jump in, but like I said, ‘Tommer’ made that whole thing possible. It was a heck of a play by him.”

The Jets thought they scored at 10:05 of the second period on a Cole Perfetti one-timer that Binnington gloved during a power play. However, a review concluded that there was no conclusive evidence to overturn the call on the ice, which was no goal, and it remained 3-0.

Binnington could sense the timeliness of the save.

“Yeah, obviously we had that 3-0 lead, you want to keep that going into the third period,” Binnington said. “That was tight. It’s just a hockey play and yeah, I knew it was close and I mean, I didn’t really see the video of it, but I felt it was just too close to tell. Thankfully it was on our side and yeah, it was a big moment in the game to stay with that 3-0 lead and keep our momentum moving forward.”

Gustafsson made it 3-1 at 4:32 of the third period when he beat Binnington with a quick shot from the slot alone.

Buchnevich completed the hat trick at 5:24 to make it 4-1. Thomas intercepted the puck from Hellebuyck behind the goal, and Buchnevich curled a backhand into the open net.

Jordan Kyrou scored a 5-on-3 power-play goal at 7:56 to make it 5-1, burying a wrist shot from the high slot using Brayden Schenn as a screen. Toropchenko made it 6-1 at 10:32 on a redirection in the slot that chased Hellebuyck from the game in favor of Comrie.

Pionk made it 6-2 at 12:50 with a power-play goal, a one-timer from the top of the left circle.

Colton Parayko scored a power-play goal on a one-timer from the edge of the left circle at 16:17 to make it 7-2.

“I just thought that the attitude we had … we started the other two games really well, and what I liked was the fierce, competitive nature in our attitude for 60 minutes,” St. Louis coach Jim Montgomery said. “The start was incredible. We were aggressive, we did the things we wanted to do to make sure that we were going to get more scoring chances, and we did get more scoring chances.”

NOTES: Fowler’s five points set a Blues record for the most by a defenseman in a playoff game. Fowler is also the eighth defenseman in League history to get five or more points in a playoff game. … Buchnevich had one goal in 22 playoff games coming into the game. … Winnipeg defenseman Dylan DeMelo was a late scratch due to illness and was replaced by Colin Miller, who had an assist in 16:52 of ice time. … St. Louis defenseman Ryan Suter was a healthy scratch after playing all 82 regular-season games and Games 1 and 2 of this series.