Blues to host Jets, close out season series

ST. LOUIS - The Blues wrap up the season series with the Winnipeg Jets on Friday in need of a victory to keep pace in the competitive Western Conference.
A limited number of tickets are available at the Scottrade Center Box Office or
online at ticketmaster.com
. Fans without tickets can follow the action on FOX Sports Midwest, FOX Sports GO or KMOX 1120 AM.

THE MATCHUP

BLUES Thursday's action didn't do the Blues many favors.
The Minnesota Wild moved one point ahead of the Blues by overcoming a 2-0 defecit en route to a 4-2 win in New Jersey. In Los Angeles, the Dallas Stars took a 2-0 win to increase their lead over the Blues for third in the Central Division by two points.
As a result, the Blues dropped to the second Wild Card spot in the West and are just one point ahead of the Los Angeles Kings and Calgary Flames.
"Desperation time was a while ago, so yeah, this is where pride has to come in," Blues Head Coach Mike Yeo said after a 3-2 loss Tuesday to San Jose. "We have to make sure that we obviously stop the bleeding. We have to start building confidence in the game that we're playing and have a feeling that showing up to the rink that everybody's going to be ready to go.
"We can't just accept that we're playing good and not winning hockey games," he added. "That's not good enough. We need points, we need wins and we need to start doing it now."

JETS With 60 games played, the Jets currently sit in second place in the Central Division with 79 points - five ahead of the Stars (74 points).
Blake Wheeler, Dustin Byfuglien and Patrik Laine scored for Winnipeg on Tuesday, but it wasn't enough in a 4-3 loss to the Kings in their last game. The loss snapped a three-game winning streak for the Jets.
"They had some really good screeners in front of me," goalie Connor Hellebuyck told NHL.com after the game. "Give them credit, they're a good team. They've won a couple of Stanley Cups for that reason, they know how to screen a goaltender. It makes the world of difference."
HEAD-TO-HEAD The Blues have won two of the three meetings with the Jets and will close out the season series on Friday.
In the last matchup, the Blues defeated the Jets 5-2 in Winnipeg.
In the last seven meetings at Scottrade Center, the Blues have killed 20 of the Jets' 21 power play opportunities (95.2 percent).

HOT VS. JETS

• Vladimir Tarasenko has seven points in his last seven games (four goals, three assists)
  - Alex Pietrangelo has seven points in his last seven games (two goals, five assists)
  - Alexander Steen has 10 points in his last 11 games (four goals, six assists)
  - Brayden Schenn has six points in his last eight games (two goals, four assists)
  - Jaden Schwartz has five points in his last five games (one goal, four assists)

BLUE NOTES

• Steen has six points in his last seven contests (two goals, four assists)
  - The Blues have scored a power-play goal in three straight games, going 3-for-11 in that span (27.3 percent). Tarasenko has points on all three power-play goals.
  - Tarasenko is three goals shy of tying Red Berenson for ninth on the Blues' all-time list for goals.