NHL News: Jets stay hot with blowout of Blues

Pierre Luc-Dubois had two goals and an assist as the visiting Winnipeg Jets defeated the St. Louis Blues 5-2 on Thursday.

Blake Wheeler contributed a goal and an assist, Kyle Connor and Cole Perfetti also scored and Mark Scheifele and Neal Pionk had two assists for the Jets, who have won six of their past seven games.

Connor Hellebuyck made 29 saves for Winnipeg to earn his sixth straight victory.

Robert Thomas and Josh Leivo scored and Thomas Greiss made 15 saves for the Blues, who lost for the fifth time in their past six games.

The victory came with a cost for the Jets, however. Winnipeg winger Saku Maenalanen exited the game with an upper-body injury after taking a big hit from Blues defenseman Niko Mikkola during the first period.

Dubois put the Jets ahead 1-0 with 4:11 left in the first period. Logan Stanley fired a shot from the right point, Scheifele gathered the rebound at the left side of the net and fed Dubois for a tap-in from in front of the net.

Connor made it 2-0 just 27 seconds into the second period. Pionk’s outlet pass off the right boards squirted ahead of the pack to Connor, who broke in alone to beat Greiss for his ninth goal in his past 11 games.

Winnipeg pushed its lead to 3-0 with a power-play goal at the 4:06 mark of the middle period. Greiss stopped Scheifele’s one-time blast from the left side, but Wheeler converted the rebound.

Scheifele’s assist was the 600th point of his career.

Thomas cut the lead to 3-1 with 1:24 left in the second period. Vladimir Tarasenko circled the back of the net and fed Thomas, who beat Hellebuyck with a short-side goal from the left faceoff dot.

Dubois made it 4-1 by jamming in a bad-angle goal with 12:21 to play. However, Leivo cut the lead to 4-2 with 9:17 left by converting a two-on-one break with Ryan O’Reilly.

Perfetti’s empty-net goal with 1:53 left iced the game.

–Field Level Media