WINNIPEG — Alex Iafallo didn’t let his confidence take a hit when his goal-scoring drought reached 20 games.
That steady approach paid off when his third-period goal helped the Winnipeg Jets extend their win streak to four games with a 4-2 victory over the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday.
“You go through slumps,” said Iafallo, who also didn’t register a point in nine straight games. “It sucks, you never want to do that.
“But at the same time, do anything to help the team out. You gotta play good defensively, blocking shots, whatever it is. I try to focus on that. If you’re not scoring, just focusing on the small things.”
Sean Monahan, who returned after missing one game because of an illness, scored once and added an assist as the Jets also recorded a seventh victory in their past eight games.
Brenden Dillon and Kyle Connor also scored for Winnipeg (37-15-5). Josh Morrissey and Nikolaj Ehlers each contributed two assists.
Laurent Brossoit made 36 saves in front of 13,139 fans at Canada Life Centre.
Jets coach Rick Bowness was liking the second line of Iafallo, Monahan and Ehlers.
"They were good the first night they played together. They were very good again tonight,” Bowness said.
“You've got two very reliable players in Sean and Alex and it gives Nik a little more freedom out there. He's better on that left side than he was on the right, and right now the line looks really good.”
Pavel Buchnevich and Brandon Saad scored for the Blues (30-26-2), who are 2-4-0 in their past six games.
St. Louis goalie Joel Hofer made his first start in his hometown and stopped 28 shots.
“I think we played a decent game,” Buchnevich said of linemates Robert Thomas and Jordan Kyrou. “We got chances, but like I was saying, we’ve got to score goals, you know? But at least we got chances today and not like just on the power play.”
Winnipeg led 3-1 after the first period and 3-2 following the second.
Monahan got the Jets on the board at 8:53 of the first. He has six goals in his past five games after registering no points in his first four games after being traded to Winnipeg from Montreal.
Dillon scored his career-high seventh goal of the season less than two minutes later through traffic.
The Jets got back to using the recipe that makes them cook in the third period, Dillon said.
“We know how good of a team they are off the rush, and how much skill they have,” he said. “So once we started to respect that, we started to use our size and grind it out down there, we saw the success we could have.”
Buchnevich cut into the lead 30 seconds later off a rebound for his 23rd, but Connor replied with his 24th at 15:33 to keep the two-goal advantage.
Connor has scored in four straight games (five goals) and extended his point streak to six games with five goals and six assists.
Morrissey assisted on a pair of the first-period goals. It gave him 11 assists in a five-game point streak.
Buchnevich has six goals and one assist in his past six games.
Saad used a bouncing puck to squeeze the score 3-2 nine minutes into the second period, extending his point streak to four games (three goals, one assist).
Iafallo ended his drought at 10:13 of the third when he used a puck that bounced off the end boards and put it by Hofer for his eighth of the season.
NOTES
Winnipeg has won all three games against the Blues this season, plus upped their record against the Central Division to 16-3-1. … The Jets are 25-3-1 when scoring first and 28-1-1 when leading after the second period. … The Blues activated defenceman Justin Faulk from injured reserve after he missed 12 games with a lower-body injury. … Oskar Sundqvist played his 300th game with St. Louis.
UP NEXT
Blues: Travel to play the Oilers in Edmonton on Wednesday.
Jets: Begin a three-game road trip Thursday against the Dallas Stars.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 27, 2024.
Judy Owen, The Canadian Press
