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WINNIPEG, Manitoba -- The Winnipeg Jets overcame an early deficit and a frightening injury to defenseman Jacob Trouba.
Trouba's head-first crash into the boards after he missed a hit on Blues' defenseman Jordan Leopold silenced the crowd and cleared both benches early in the second period of the Jets' 4-3 win over St. Louis on Friday night.
The minutes ticked by until he was wheeled off on a stretcher, managing to wave as fans shouted his name.
Just 19, the Jets' top 2012 draft pick impressed his coaches at camp and fans with his aggressive all-out style. He has a goal and an assist this season.
"Trouba's still getting evaluated, but everything's good, he's got motion, he's got everything," Winnipeg coach Claude Noel said.
"I think they're just running him through some tests to make sure everything's fine."
The game ended on a positive note for the Jets despite the inauspicious beginning.
Olli Jokinen scored his second goal of the night in the seventh round of the shootout the Jets forced after overcoming a 3-1 deficit in the third.
"It definitely feels good when you win those," said center Bryan Little, who had an assist and kept the Jets in the shootout, along with captain Andrew Ladd, until Jokinen's winner.
"It was a good win against a good team and hopefully that gives us some confidence. ... We've got to believe we can beat teams like this on a nightly basis."
Noel agreed.
"Although we were down 2-1 in the first, I thought we played a lot harder, we battled a lot harder for 60 minutes," he said.
"We had opportunities to get demoralized and get discouraged a bit, but I thought against a team that can really close out games like St. Louis, I thought we really stuck to the plan."
Evander Kane and Tobias Enstrom, with the tying goal in the third, also scored for the Jets, while Ondrej Pavelec made 29 saves.
Alexander Steen scored a pair against his hometown team as giveaways helped the Blues take an early lead.
David Backes also scored for the Blues, who were coming off a 3-2 shootout win over Chicago on Thursday night.
"It's not a great feeling," said Steen, who added he took no solace in walking away with a point after giving up a 3-1 lead.
"We gave away this one. We were up by two late in the game. We shouldn't be giving away points like that."
The Jets have been trying to overcome slow starts and seemed successful, at least at first Friday night.
They were even ahead on shots, but it was Backes who scored first from the slot at 8:43 of the first period. T.J. Oshie fed him the puck on a defensive slip by Grant Clitsome.
It energized the Blues, but then Jokinen evened things up at 15:30 when he fired a bouncing rebound past St. Louis backup Brian Elliott, who finished with 26 saves in his first start this season.
The play also gave right wing Matt Halischuk his first point as a Jet for the assist.
Less than three minutes later, Trouba whiffed on a pass and left the puck for the Winnipeg-born Steen, who skated into the slot to put the Blues ahead 2-1.
It could have been worse. The Blues also made Winnipeg's goal posts ring like church bells in the first period.
Neither team scored on the power play in the first two periods, although the Jets only had one chance.
St. Louis had three, two thanks to Kane, who spent some time warming the Winnipeg bench after the second.
"We did a great job on the penalty kill, that was huge," Pavelec said.
Steen was perfectly positioned beside the Winnipeg net at 3:34 of the third to one-time a rebound off Backes' glancing shot from the boards and make it 3-1.
It looked like the game was pretty well over until Kane brought the Jets within one at 14:14, when his slap shot from outside the faceoff circle glanced off St. Louis defenseman Roman Polak's stick.
Then Enstrom slammed home a pass from Dustin Byfuglien at 18:06 to tie it up.
Little and Ladd connected for the Jets in the shootout and Oshie and Steen hit for the Blues, until Jokinen beat Elliott on his glove side to win the game in the seventh round.
NOTES: Former Winnipeg Jet Thomas Steen (1981-95), father to Alexander and a Winnipeg city councilman, was on hand for the Blues' second visit to the city since the Jets were reborn in 2011. His son didn't play on their first.
