Ryan O'Reilly, in the postseason for the first time in five years, scored the game-winning goal early in the third period and goalie Jordan Binnington supported that with some excellent play in the net as the St. Louis Blues beat the Jets 4-3 on Friday in Winnipeg to take a 2-0 lead in their first-round playoff series.
Oskar Sundqvist scored two goals and Pat Maroon had the other goal and Binnington stopped 26 of 29 shots he faced as the Blues come home for Sunday's Game 3 with two wins on the road.
O'Reilly scored 3:46 into the third period, skating the puck into the zone and letting the shot fly from the top of the right circle. O'Reilly's last playoff goal was April 24, 2014, when he was with Colorado.
The most recent time the Blues took the first two games of a postseason series on the road was in 2017, when they won two games in Minnesota on their way to a 4-1 series win. Before that, you have to go back to 2001, when they did it against Dallas on their way to a four-game sweep in the conference semifinals.
It was power plays that kept the game close. The Blues went 0-4 on the power play while Winnipeg is 2 for 3.
The Blues fell behind Winnipeg 2-1 after Patrick Laine scored his second goal of the series 19 seconds into a power play. Maroon got the Blues even when he got a pass in front of the net from Robert Thomas and whacked it past Connor Hellebuyck for the goal.
The Blues went ahead on Sundqvist's second goal of the game, matching the total he had in 70 regular-season games going into this season. He took a pass from David Perron, skated into the slot and beat Hellebuyck with 10:10 to go in the period.
The Blues had a couple more scoring chances that they couldn't finish and then, on Winnipeg's power play, which is very dangerous at home, needed just 22 seconds this time before Mark Scheifele went to the far post to beat Binnington and even the score at 3-3.
In the first period, Sundqvist scored on a 2-on-1 break with Jay Bouwmeester during a stretch of 4-on-4 time to put the Blues ahead 5:23 into the period. It was Sundqvist's first postseason goal after scoring 14 in the regular season. That goal was right before the first of three power plays began for the Blues, and in 4:40 of time with a man advantage, the Blues had just two shots on goal. In Game 1 of the series, the Blues went 0 for 3 on power plays.
Not long after the last Blues power play ended, Winnipeg scored. Scheifele, who had been called for two penalties, had the puck behind the net and fed to a Blake Wheeler, who was alone in front of the goal and chipped the puck past Binnington.
