St. Louis blew a three-goal lead Tuesday night, but Barret Jackman beat Ondrej Pavelec from center ice with just over a minute remaining leading the Blues to a 5-4 win.
“When I threw it in there, I thought [Pavelec] was kind of surveying the play and was just going to grab it and flip it to the side,” said Jackman per NHL.com’s Lou Korac. “It just kind of floated over the glove. [Pavelec] obviously didn’t get a good look at it.”
Hitch: "The hockey gods took care of us." #stlblues
— Lou Korac (@lkorac10) March 11, 2015
Jets head coach Paul Maurice reportedly had just a 47-second scrum post-game.
“It went in. There was nothing magical about it,” said Maurice of the Jackman goal.
The Jets loss coupled with the L.A. Kings win over the Colorado Avalanche leaves Winnipeg with a one-point lead over the Kings for the second wild card spot in the Western Conference.
The Blues (42-19-5) now trail the Nashville Predators by just two points for top spot in the Central Division and have two games in hand.
St. Louis scored four goals on its first seven shots of the game chasing Winnipeg starter Michael Hutchinson.
After Michael Frolik opened the scoring, Jaden Schwartz, Vladimir Tarasenko, Steve Ott and Jori Lehtera all beat Hutchinson.
The Blues STL line of Schwartz, Tarasenko and Lehtera combined for six points in the win. The trio now has 17 points in four games.
Pavelec made 19 saves in the loss.
Andrew Ladd and Lee Stempniak got the Jets’ comeback started scoring twice 11 seconds apart early in the third.
Blake Wheeler scored shorthanded to tie it 4-4.
Per Elias: @StLouisBlues won in regulation after giving up a 3-goal lead in the 3rd period for 1st time since Feb. 22, 1995 vs SJ. #WPGvsSTL
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) March 11, 2015
St. Louis has now won all three meetings between the two clubs. The Blues and Jets meet again March 19 in Winnipeg.