Thanks to a furious third-period rally by the St. Louis Blues in Game 5 of their first-round playoff series with the Winnipeg Jets, the Blues have a 3-2 edge right now heading back home and can knock the Jets out of the postseason with a win tonight. Sportsbooks opened the Blues as -140 home favorites with a total of 5.5.
Standout Stats
- Down 2-0 entering the final period of Game 5, the Blues stunned the Winnipeg faithful on Jaden Schwartz’s goal with 15 seconds remaining to hand St. Louis a 3-2 victory.
- Winnipeg has made a habit of blowing late leads all season, as the Jets have now blown third-period leads nine times in the regular season and twice in the series. The Jets finished 0-for-3 on the power play and are 1-for-9 with the man advantage in their past three games.
- Coming off back-to-back losses for the first time in his career, rookie goaltender Jordan Binnington fared much better late in the contest after allowing two early goals. Binnington finished the tilt with 29 saves.
- Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck stopped 26 of the 29 shots he faced. In the playoffs, the American is 2-3 with a 2.58 goals-against average and .912 save percentage.
- Through five games, the home team has yet to win. This is the fourth time the road team has won the Sportsbook five games of an NHL best-of-seven series, and the first time since the 2004 Western Conference finals between Calgary and San Jose.
My best bet for Jets-Blues
Blues moneyline
If St. Louis didn’t come away with a late win in Game 5, I would expect this series to go seven games, but considering the Blues now have the momentum coming back home with a chance to close it out I think they’ll get the job done and eliminate Winnipeg tonight. Binnington looked much better in the second and third periods of Game 5 and should continue to stymie the Jets offense tonight.
The Jets are 5-0 SU in their last five meetings with the Blues in St. Louis. The underdog is 6-0 in the last six meetings between the Jets and Blues. The OVER is 5-2 in the Jets last seven games.away
