Kyrou scores two as Blues ground struggling Jets

WINNIPEG — Mark Scheifele didn’t have an answer for why the Winnipeg Jets’ losing streak now sits at four games.

Scheifele scored Winnipeg’s only goal in a 4-1 loss to the St. Louis Blues Tuesday, rolling the Jets’ record to 1-5-0 in their past six games and dropping them out of first place in the NHL standings.

During the four-game skid, the Jets (18-8-0) have only scored six goals. They went into the game sitting third in the league with 94 goals.

“I don't know if I can pinpoint it right now,” Scheifele said when asked where the team’s offence has gone.

“I think it's just a matter of wearing teams down. Obviously, everyone's gunning for us and they know they got to play us hard. So, I think it's just a matter of getting back to looking at the blueprint that we were doing earlier and just try to get back to that.”

Connor Hellebuyck stopped 28 of the 31 shots he faced for Winnipeg.

Jordan Kyrou scored twice and Dylan Holloway had a goal and assist for St. Louis. Robert Thomas recorded an empty-net goal.

Winnipegger Joel Hofer made 22 saves for St. Louis (12-12-2), which is on a four-game point streak (3-0-1).

The four-game run coincides with the hiring of Jim Montgomery as Blues head coach on Nov. 24.

Winnipeg head coach Scott Arniel said two things stand out to him during his team’s losing streak.

“We have opportunities to attack the net and we've looked for one more play,” he said. “And the other side of it is that, when we get inside, when we get bodies and numbers inside, that creates those second and third opportunities.

“Sometimes it's the opposition trying to keep you out of there, but sometimes it's your will to go inside there and go get those second chances. For me, the attack mindset is something that we've had for most of the year but now we're deferring.”

Winnipeg entered the match tied in points for first place in the league, a spot they had been in since Oct. 22 but no longer.

"We don't look where we're sitting,” Arniel said. “We look at, like we talked about when we beat teams, it's the next opponent and moving on.”

He and his assistants will stress what's needed to have success.

“We need to be better as a group. That's the biggest thing,” Arniel said. “We won all those games as a team and this isn't going to change here. Everybody's had a little bit of fault (with) these losses and now it's a case of us sticking together and going on to the next game on the road here and finding a way to win that hockey game."

After Winnipeg had an 8-6 shot advantage in the first period, St. Louis outshot the Jets 19-3 in second period.

During four-on-four play, Kyrou and Holloway gave the Blues a 2-0 lead after scoring 39 seconds apart.

Kyrou scored at 18:04 after his rebound went off Scheifele’s skate. Holloway notched his eighth of the season when he put in his own rebound past Hellebuyck at 18:43.

“That whole period, we were kind of dominating them,” Kyrou said. “We had tons of chances, and chances just kept coming and coming and (Montgomery) was like, ‘We’re going to get one here the last four minutes’ and we got two there so it was good.”

Kyrou registered his second goal of the game at 6:38 of the third, followed by Scheifele’s goal with 4:15 remaining and Thomas’s goal with 3:39 left.

The Jets head out for a two-game road trip, beginning Thursday in Buffalo against the Sabres. The Blues travel to Calgary to play the Flames.

NOTES

The Jets have scored one or fewer goals in six of their past 10 games. … Winnipeg was without winger Nikolaj Ehlers, who was placed on injured reserve this week (lower body) and might be out seven to 10 days. … Injured St. Louis forward Pavel Buchnevich skated with the team in the morning but didn't play.

TAKEAWAYS

Jets: Winnipeg only won 36.2 per cent of faceoffs and had a hard time getting pucks on net. The Blues blocked 14 shots.

Blues: Holloway and Kyrou were the engines propelling St. Louis. Kyrou finished with seven shots on goal and hit a post.

KEY MOMENT

The Jets were already having a sluggish second period when Kyrou and Holloway scored 39 seconds apart.

KEY STAT

The Blues have picked up points in their past four games (3-0-1) — all under new head coach Jim Montgomery since his Nov. 24 hiring.

UP NEXT

Jets: Visit the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday.

Blues: Visit the Calgary Flames on Thursday.