Hats fly, Hellebuyck yanked, as Blues pound Jets 7-2 to win Game 3 in St. Louis
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