ST. LOUIS (AP) — Brayden Schenn, Tyler Tucker and Justin Faulk each scored second-period goals to help the St. Louis Blues beat the Winnipeg Jets 5-1 on Sunday to tie their first-round NHL playoff series at two games apiece.
Robert Thomas and Jake Neighbours also scored, and Jordan Binnington made 30 saves for St. Louis, which has won 14 straight regular-season and playoff games at home dating back to Feb. 23.
Kyle Connor scored, and Connor Hellebuyck made 13 saves for Winnipeg before being pulled after Thomas scored his second goal of the playoffs 2:01 into the third period.
Eric Comrie made five saves in relief of Hellebuyck, who has allowed at least four goals in 10 of his last 13 playoff appearances and has been pulled in consecutive games for just the second time in his career counting the regular season.
Schenn gave the Blues a 3-1 lead with 2:37 remaining in the second period when he wristed a puck in the crease over Hellebuyck for his first goal of the playoffs just five seconds after Jets captain Adam Lowry returned from serving a roughing penalty.
Tucker scored his first career playoff goal on a slap shot from the point to give the Blues a 2-1 lead 10:56 into the second period. Tucker needed help leaving the ice with 4:17 remaining in the game after his left leg slammed into the boards awkwardly as Oskar Sundqvist delivered a hit on Brandon Tanev next to him.
Neighbours used the blade of his stick to deflect a shot from Colton Parayko past Hellebuyck for his first career playoff goal with 23 seconds remaining in the first period.
Connor scored his third goal of the post-season with 6:02 left in the first period to give Winnipeg a 1-0 lead.
Elsewhere in the NHL playoffs on Sunday:
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HURRICANES 5 DEVILS 2
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Andrei Svechnikov scored three goals and Carolina beat New Jersey 5-2 to grab a 3-1 lead in their first-round playoff series.
Brent Burns had a goal and an assist, and Jaccob Slavin also scored for the Hurricanes, who bounced back after a 3-2 loss in two overtimes two nights earlier. Sebastian Aho and Jackson Blake each had two assists.
Frederik Andersen stopped six of the seven shots he faced before leaving early in the second period due to an apparent injury. Pyotr Kochetkov came on and finished with 14 saves.
Timo Meier had a goal and an assist, and Nico Hischier also scored for the Devils. Jacob Markstrom had 24 saves.
Game 5 is Tuesday night in Raleigh, N.C.
The Devils were without defencemen Luke Hughes and Brenden Dillon for the third straight game, and also didn’t have Johnathan Kovacevic, who left after one period of Game 3.
Burns fired a shot from the right circle that Markstrom stopped but the puck dropped and rolled between the goalie’s pads and across the line to push Carolina’s lead to 4-2 with 5:44 left in the third.
Svechnikov then finished his second playoff hat trick with an empty-netter with 3:17 remaining. It was his fourth of the series and second into an empty net.
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CAPITALS 5 CANADIENS 2
MONTREAL (AP) — Andrew Mangiapane scored the go-ahead goal with just under four minutes remaining, Brandon Duhaime had two goals and Logan Thompson made 16 saves to lead Washington to a 5-2 win over Montreal for a 3-1 lead in the first-round series.
The teams head back to Washington, where the Capitals won the first two games, for Game 5 on Wednesday night.
Dylan Strome had a goal and assist and Mangiapane and Tom Wilson also scored for the Capitals.
Juraj Slafkovsky and Cole Caufield scored for Montreal. Ivan Demidov and Lane Hutson each had two assists. Jakub Dobes made 21 saves.
Mangiapane picked up a drop pass at the blue line and beat Dobes on the glove side as Washington rallied from a 2-1 deficit entering the third period.
Thompson returned to the lineup and had a strong game after exiting with an injury late in Game 3. Teammate Dylan Strome crashed into his goaltender on Montreal’s fifth goal Friday, and Thompson needed to be helped off the ice.
Dobes was making his first career playoff start. The 23-year-old from Czechia replaced injured starter Sam Montembeault midway through the second period in Game 2. Montembeault is considered day-to-day with a lower-body injury.
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The Associated Press
