WINNIPEG ā Mark Scheifele didnāt have an answer for why the Winnipeg Jetsā losing streak now sits at four games.
Scheifele scored Winnipegās only goal in a 4-1 loss to the St. Louis Blues Tuesday, rolling the Jetsā record to 1-5-0 in their past six games and dropping them out of first place in the NHL standings.
During the four-game skid, the Jets (18-8-0) have only scored six goals. They went into the game sitting third in the league with 94 goals.
āI don't know if I can pinpoint it right now,ā Scheifele said when asked where the teamās offence has gone.
āI think it's just a matter of wearing teams down. Obviously, everyone's gunning for us and they know they got to play us hard. So, I think it's just a matter of getting back to looking at the blueprint that we were doing earlier and just try to get back to that.ā
Connor Hellebuyck stopped 28 of the 31 shots he faced for Winnipeg.
Jordan Kyrou scored twice and Dylan Holloway had a goal and assist for St. Louis. Robert Thomas recorded an empty-net goal.
Winnipegger Joel Hofer made 22 saves for St. Louis (12-12-2), which is on a four-game point streak (3-0-1).
The four-game run coincides with the hiring of Jim Montgomery as Blues head coach on Nov. 24.
Winnipeg head coach Scott Arniel said two things stand out to him during his teamās losing streak.
āWe have opportunities to attack the net and we've looked for one more play,ā he said. āAnd the other side of it is that, when we get inside, when we get bodies and numbers inside, that creates those second and third opportunities.
āSometimes it's the opposition trying to keep you out of there, but sometimes it's your will to go inside there and go get those second chances. For me, the attack mindset is something that we've had for most of the year but now we're deferring.ā
Winnipeg entered the match tied in points for first place in the league, a spot they had been in since Oct. 22 but no longer.
"We don't look where we're sitting,ā Arniel said. āWe look at, like we talked about when we beat teams, it's the next opponent and moving on.ā
He and his assistants will stress what's needed to have success.
āWe need to be better as a group. That's the biggest thing,ā Arniel said. āWe won all those games as a team and this isn't going to change here. Everybody's had a little bit of fault (with) these losses and now it's a case of us sticking together and going on to the next game on the road here and finding a way to win that hockey game."
After Winnipeg had an 8-6 shot advantage in the first period, St. Louis outshot the Jets 19-3 in second period.
During four-on-four play, Kyrou and Holloway gave the Blues a 2-0 lead after scoring 39 seconds apart.
Kyrou scored at 18:04 after his rebound went off Scheifeleās skate. Holloway notched his eighth of the season when he put in his own rebound past Hellebuyck at 18:43.
āThat whole period, we were kind of dominating them,ā Kyrou said. āWe had tons of chances, and chances just kept coming and coming and (Montgomery) was like, āWeāre going to get one here the last four minutesā and we got two there so it was good.ā
Kyrou registered his second goal of the game at 6:38 of the third, followed by Scheifeleās goal with 4:15 remaining and Thomasās goal with 3:39 left.
The Jets head out for a two-game road trip, beginning Thursday in Buffalo against the Sabres. The Blues travel to Calgary to play the Flames.
NOTES
The Jets have scored one or fewer goals in six of their past 10 games. ā¦ Winnipeg was without winger Nikolaj Ehlers, who was placed on injured reserve this week (lower body) and might be out seven to 10 days. ā¦ Injured St. Louis forward Pavel Buchnevich skated with the team in the morning but didn't play.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 3, 2024.
Judy Owen, The Canadian Press
