NHL - St Louis Blues @ Winnipeg Jets 4-2 - Sunday, October 18, 2015

Vladimir Tarasenko scored twice to help the St. Louis Blues to a 4-2 win against the Winnipeg Jets at MTS Centre on Sunday in a game that featured a combined 51 hits from the Central Division rivals. The Blues have won four consecutive games on their season-high six-game road trip.
Scottie Upshall and Carl Gunnarsson scored for the Blues, who outshot Winnipeg 17-6 in the third period. Dmitrij Jaskin had two assists. The loss ended Winnipeg's three-game winning streak. Mathieu Perreault and Drew Stafford each countered on the power play for the Jets. Winnipeg is 6-for-22 on the power play and used it to pressure St. Louis early. Brian Elliott finished with 27 saves and faced the first six shots of the game against an opponent known for trying to pounce on visiting teams early.
Jets coach Paul Maurice broke from his pattern of alternating starts between Pavelec and Michael Hutchinson and used Pavelec for the second consecutive game. Pavelec made 37 saves. Ehlers, the ninth pick in the 2014 NHL Draft, has started his rookie season with one goal and three assists in six games. But the Blues took over in the third period against the Jets, who had outscored opponents 8-2 in the third entering the game. St. Louis took 14 of the period's first 16 shots and had three power plays in the period.
Already dealing with the losses of forward Paul Stastny (lower body) and defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk (lower body), the offseason signings of Gomez and Upshall have helped to solidify Hitchcock's lineup.

Goals

* St. Louis took a 1-0 lead early in the second period. Tarasenko cut away from the right circle and into the high slot before putting a shot under the crossbar at 3:27. Tarasenko has five goals in his first six games, tying him for the NHL lead.
* Penalty trouble hurt St. Louis early and Winnipeg had four power plays in the first 24 minutes. Perreault scored 17 seconds into the Jets' fourth power play to tie the game 1-1 when he took a pass to the slot from Blake Wheeler and one-timed a shot past Elliott's left glove 1:05 after Tarasenko's goal. Wheeler's assist extended his point streak to six games, tying his career high.
* St. Louis reclaimed their lead at 9:42 of the second period when Upshall slipped into the crease and tapped a loose puck past Pavelec to make it 2-1.
* Back on the power play, Winnipeg's Nikolaj Ehlers released a wrist shot from inside the blue line that Stafford tipped past Elliott at 12:27 to tie the game 2-2.
* Already taking over the game, Tarasenko broke a 2-2 tie 9:50 into the third period on a delayed penalty when he slipped a right-circle shot past Winnipeg goaltender Ondrej Pavelec. Tarasenko's game-winning goal off a cross-ice feed from Scott Gomez put the Blues in further control.
* Gunnarsson finished off the scoring for the Blues with a tip-in at 18:53 of the third period.

Blues Quotes

Ken Hitchcock: "We won the street fight. It was a good, old-fashioned street fight. Players like playing in these games. These are old-fashioned. You get ice by the inch, and they're fun to play in, and I think our players really like this type of atmosphere, love this building, like playing this team because it demands a lot, and they're fun to coach against. They're very emotional, very intense hockey games, and they're fun to be around. The third period was the best period we've played on the road all season. It's nothing new. Playing against [Tarasenko], I'd be really nervous, and he doesn't miss. We brought Upshall and Gomez in for this specific reason. We knew that starting on the road it was going to be hard to stay healthy, and they both have given us good, quality minutes."
Brian Elliott: "We know that's how [Winnipeg] is going to come out in this building. They're a fast team that tries to get on you really early. I thought we did a good job of just weathering the storm in the first [period], just kept executing our game plan and persevered through. We've been able to just put everything into perspective, especially on a long road trip like this. It's just one game at a time and trying to play road hockey, that gutsy hockey that wins games."
Vladimir Tarasenko: "It was a really nice pass. [Gomez] has a lot of experience, and I expected this pass from him."

Jets Quotes

Andrew Ladd: "I liked our start. The first period, I thought we were on top of it, and after that our pace was just off a little bit."
Paul Maurice: "The disparity in the third period, we [were] in the box and then we're chasing it, so our game opens up."

Penalties

1st Period
06:03 STL	Joel Edmundson  Holding the stick against  Nikolaj Ehlers
09:26 STL	Robert Bortuzzo  Roughing against  Anthony Peluso
09:26 WPG	Anthony Peluso  Roughing against  Robert Bortuzzo
11:00 STL	Alexander Steen  Holding against  Dustin Byfuglien
13:17 WPG	Tyler Myers  Roughing against  Alexander Steen
2nd Period
00:23 STL	Carl Gunnarsson  Hi-sticking against  Drew Stafford
04:15 STL	Scottie Upshall  Hi-sticking against  Adam Pardy
11:14 STL	Joel Edmundson  Interference against  Mathieu Perreault
13:09 WPG	Nikolaj Ehlers  Too many men/ice - bench
17:31 STL	Dmitrij Jaskin  Tripping against  Nikolaj Ehlers
18:42 WPG	Alexander Burmistrov  Tripping against  Alexander Steen
3rd Period
03:11 WPG	Mathieu Perreault  Hooking against  Scott Gomez
09:57 WPG	Mathieu Perreault  Hi-sticking against  Dmitrij Jaskin
17:13 WPG	Dustin Byfuglien  Charging against  Jay Bouwmeester
17:13 WPG	Dustin Byfuglien  Roughing against  Scottie Upshall
17:13 STL	Scottie Upshall  Roughing against  Dustin Byfuglien
19:46 STL	Jay Bouwmeester  Tripping against  Tyler Myers
20:00 STL	Joel Edmundson  Roughing against  Drew Stafford
20:00 WPG	Drew Stafford  Slashing against  Joel Edmundson