Connor's game-winner helps Jets soar to 2-0 series lead over Blues

Kyle Connor smiled when asked if he was only scoring game-winners in the playoffs.

"Yeah, I'll take it," the Winnipeg Jets top winger said Monday after another timely goal.

Connor scored his second consecutive game-winner in the third period and Mark Scheifele had a goal and assist to propel Winnipeg to a 2-1 victory over the St. Louis Blues and a two-game lead in their opening-round playoff series.

It was the first time in three NHL seasons the Jets have started with a 2-0 series lead in the Western Conference best-of-seven contest. The past two years, Winnipeg won the first game and then lost the next four to be eliminated.

Game 3 is Thursday in St. Louis.

Did it provide a mental boost to get over that Game 2 hump?

"I don't know if it's a mental boost, but we're aware of it coming into it," Connor said. "I think over the past couple of years, this group is motivated.

"We talked about it over the off-season, we preached about it all year, it's in this room. Everybody needs to be better, bear down, it's dragging everybody into the fight. Yeah it's a second win, but we're not resting here. We've got a long ways to go."

A fan favourite, his KC initials often spark fans to dress up as Colonel Sanders of KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) fame. One of those fans held a sign inside Canada Life Centre asking for a hockey stick in exchange for a chicken drumstick.

Connor made it 2-1 at 1:43 of the third period after getting a feed out front by Cole Perfetti at the side of the net. 

In Winnipeg's 5-3 victory last Saturday, Connor's goal with 1:36 remaining in the third gave the team a 4-3 lead.

Connor Hellebuyck made 21 saves in front of a full house of 15,225 loud, white-clad fans.

Taking a 2-0 lead in the series wasn't cause for