Pavel Buchnevich tried not to get too emotional as the hats rained onto the ice in his honor.
Buchnevich scored three goals for his first career playoff hat trick and added an assist as the St. Louis Blues beat the Winnipeg Jets 7-2 in Game 3 of their first-round series on Thursday night.
“(Robert Thomas) kind of tried to calm me down,” Buchnevich said. “And you know, we just stand and watch and be ready for next shift.”
Cam Fowler had a goal and four assists to set a Blues franchise record for points by a defenseman in a playoff game. Jordan Kyrou, Alexey Toropchenko and Colton Parayko also scored, and Thomas had three assists to help the Blues cut the Jets’ series lead to 2-1. Jordan Binnington made 17 saves.
“Buchy stepped up right away,” Thomas said. “He came out flying and made some great plays and got us off to a great start.”
David Gustafsson and Neal Pionk scored for the Jets, who won the first two games in Winnipeg. Connor Hellebuyck gave up six goals on 25 shots before being pulled midway through the third period. Eric Comrie stopped two of the three shots he faced.
Game 4 is in St. Louis on Sunday, with Game 5 in Winnipeg on Wednesday.
Buchnevich, who had just one goal in 22 previous postseason games, gave the Blues an early lead with two goals in the game’s opening minutes. He got it going just 48 seconds in by kicking the puck off his stick and into the net, and then he tipped Thomas’ shot for a power-play goal at 3:11.
“We just got to focus on ourselves one game at a time and, you know, believe in our system, believe in our forecheck, and keep going,” Buchnevich said.
Fowler, who assisted on the first two goals, made it 3-0 with 4:09 left in the opening period.
Buchnevich and Fowler became the first Blues teammates with three points in a period of a playoff game since Al MacInnis and Chris Pronger in Game 3 of the 1998 West quarterfinals against the Kings.
“Heck of a play by Buchnevich, kicked it and then knocked it out of the air to get it started 40 seconds into the game, all of a sudden lighting up the building even more,” Jets coach Scott Arniel said. “But then, you know, like, give up the power-play goal, we’re down 2-0 four minutes into it, you know, then you are chasing the game from that point forward.”
Binnington robbed Cole Perfetti of a power-play goal midway through the second that would have gotten Winnipeg back in it. Perfetti and the Jets thought the puck crossed the goal line in Binnington’s glove, but after a lengthy league-initiated review, the save stood.
“I saw his glove in the net,” Perfetti said. “Obviously, he made a great save, but, like, I was on the goal line and I saw his glove in the net and the puck in the mesh of the glove ΓǪ I don’t know how much more they need to see the puck in the net.”
Buchnevich’s third goal, at 5:24 of the third period, came less than a minute after Gustafsson gave the Jets some momentum with his first of the playoffs.
“I thought Buchy has been good in the first two games, especially defensively, but offensively I thought there was more in his game, and I thought he brought that tonight,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery said.
Kyrou had a power-play goal at 7:56 and Toropchenko scored with 9:28 left to make it 6-1 and chase Hellebuyck.
Pionk had a power-play goal for the Jets 2 1/2 minutes later, but Parayko got the Blues’ third goal with the man-advantage with 3:43 remaining to close the scoring.
There were three other playoff games on Thursday night:
