Buchnevich’s Hat Trick Powers Blues to 7-2 Win Over Jets in Game 3
Pavel Buchnevich scored three goals for his first career playoff hat trick as the St. Louis Blues defeated the Winnipeg Jets 7-2 in Game 3 of their first-round series 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.”
The win cuts the Jets’ series lead to 2-1.
Cam Fowler delivered a historic performance with a goal and four assists, setting a Blues franchise record for points by a defenseman in a playoff game.
Jordan Kyrou, Alexey Toropchenko and Colton Parayko also scored for St. Louis. Robert Thomas contributed three assists in the victory, while Jordan Binnington stopped 17 shots.
“Buchy stepped up right away,” Thomas said. “He came out flying and made some great plays and got us off to a great start.”
The Blues wasted no time getting on the scoreboard as Buchnevich struck just 48 seconds into the game, kicking the puck off his stick and into the net.
He added his second goal on a power play at 3:11, tipping in Thomas’s shot to give St. Louis an early 2-0 advantage.
Fowler extended the lead to 3-0 with 4:09 remaining in the first period.
The dynamic start by Buchnevich and Fowler marked the first time Blues teammates recorded three points in a period of a playoff game since Al MacInnis and Chris Pronger accomplished the feat in Game 3 of the 1998 West quarterfinals against the Kings.
“Heck of a play by Buchnevich, kicked it and then knocked it out of the air to get it started 40 seconds into the game, all of a sudden lighting up the building even more,” Jets coach Scott Arniel said. “But then, you know, like, give up the power-play goal, we’re down 2-0 four minutes into it, you know, then you are chasing the game from that point forward.”
A controversial moment occurred midway through the second period when Binnington robbed Cole Perfetti of what the Jets thought was a power-play goal. After a lengthy league-initiated review, officials determined the puck didn’t cross the goal line in Binnington’s glove.
“I saw his glove in the net,” Perfetti said. “Obviously, he made a great save, but, like, I was on the goal line and I saw his glove in the net and the puck in the mesh of the glove … I don’t know how much more they need to see the puck in the net.”
David Gustafsson scored his first goal of the playoffs at 4:37 of the third period to get Winnipeg on the board.
Buchnevich completed his hat trick just 47 seconds later, triggering a shower of hats onto the ice from the home crowd.
“I thought Buchy has been good in the first two games, especially defensively, but offensively I thought there was more in his game, and I thought he brought that tonight,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery said.
The Blues continued to pour it on as Kyrou scored a power-play goal at 7:56, followed by Toropchenko’s tally with 9:28 remaining that made it 6-1 and chased Connor Hellebuyck from the game. The Jets goaltender allowed six goals on 25 shots.
Neal Pionk added a power-play goal for Winnipeg with about seven minutes left.
Parayko capped the scoring with the Blues’ third power-play goal of the night with 3:43 remaining.
Eric Comrie replaced Hellebuyck and stopped two of three shots for the Jets, who had won the first two games in Winnipeg.
Game 4 is scheduled for Sunday in St. Louis, with Game 5 set for Wednesday in Winnipeg.
“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.
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