The last time the Winnipeg Jets hosted a Game 7, their opposition was the San Diego Mariners. In 1977. In the now-defunct World Hockey Association.
The Jets won that clash en route to the league final. They hope history repeats itself Sunday when they play host to the St. Louis Blues in a winner-take-all clash for their Western Conference first-round playoff series.
“We’re going to have to focus on Game 7,” said Jets forward Cole Perfetti. “It’s a one-gamer, winner moves on, and we got the home ice and we got our fans behind us and our barn rocking.”
The Blues forced Game 7 with a 5-2 victory Friday in St. Louis. The home team has won all six games in this series. That’s one reason for the Jets to be confident.
“We’ve got to go home,” said Jets coach Scott Arniel. “Take care of our business at home.”
The Jets, winners of the Presidents’ Trophy that goes to the regular-season leader in points, finished 20 points ahead of the Blues in the regular season. But they have struggled mightily to dispatch the eighth-seeded upstarts who needed a late winning spree to claim the conference’s second wild-card spot.
St. Louis won all three of its home games by at least three goals and chased Winnipeg star goaltender Connor Hellebuyck in each of them.
Winnipeg has one Stanley Cup playoffs Game 7 in its franchise history — a 5-1 victory over the Nashville Predators in 2018 when Hellebuyck made 38 saves and Mark Scheifele scored twice.
Scheifele missed Friday’s Game 6 due to injury, but he skated on Saturday and will be a game-time decision Sunday.
Regardless, the Jets have all the pressure on them.
“We know what we’re capable of,” Perfetti said. “We know what kind of team we are.”
The Blues are well aware they are facing their last chance to beat the Jets in Winnipeg during their matchup. But St. Louis has all the momentum after breaking open Friday’s game with four goals in the second period and pushing the series to the distance.
“We’re in Game 7 of the playoffs. It’s what we’ve all dreamed of,” said Blues coach Jim Montgomery said. “You don’t think about winning Game 1 when you’re playing in your basement or you’re playing street hockey or you’re playing knee hockey with your best friend or brother, whatever the case may be. It’s Game 7, it’s overtime and it’s about us seizing an opportunity. It’s an opportunity that we’ve earned and now we have to go seize it.”
The Blues have a 10-8 franchise mark in Game 7 clashes, the most recent when they beat the Boston Bruins in the 2019 Stanley Cup Final.
Goaltender Jordan Binnington has won both of his Game 7 opportunity in his career — including the aforementioned Stanley Cup victory — and surrendered only one goal in each of those contests.
The Blues also beat the Jets the only other time they met in the playoffs — in the opening round in 2019.
Now it’s time to see whether the Blues can take their successful show on the road and complete the upset.
“It’s what you play for,” Blues captain Brayden Schenn told NHL.com. “It’s one of those things where you have to have the ability to go enjoy the moment and take your work seriously, but enjoy the moment while you’re there. It’s going to be a tough building to play in, we know that, but we feel like we haven’t had our best there yet, and we’re looking forward to it.”
–Field Level Media
