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WINNIPEG, Manitoba — Game 1 of the Blues-Jets playoff series started out physical and ended that way too.

The Blues were credited with 24 hits in the first period alone on the way to a total of 53 — almost one per minute — in their 5-3 loss to Winnipeg on Saturday. Brayden Schenn was credited with seven in the first period on his way to nine in the game, Jake Neighbours and Nathan Walker each with seven and Alexey Toropchenko with six.

The game ended with two separate brawls with nine players getting 10-minute misconducts, including both Schenn brothers, though in separate fights.

“I think any time you have Brayden Schenn on your team and you play the first game of a series, there’s going to be a lot of hits in the first period,� Blues coach Jim Montgomery said. “Then I also think it’s just the excitement of playing. Guys have a lot of energy and that’s why the shifts were so short, too, because when you’re physical like that, you change in 35 seconds.�

“We knew they were going to be physical,� said Winnipeg forward Jaret Anderson-Dolan, “and I think they kind of even raised the level of what we thought. They came out flying there in that first 10 and kind of took the momentum. But I think like this group does, just kind of stayed even-keel and tried to ride out the wave. And obviously ended up getting it back and getting a big win.�

Fights in the first game of a playoff series are nothing new.

“That’s just two teams that are really competitive that are going hard right ’til the end of the game,� he said. “That’s just part of the Stanley Cup playoffs. If you compare it to 20 years ago, it’s nothing.�

Neighbours, Schenn and Pavel Buchnevich got sent to the dressing room with 19 seconds remaining and then Mathieu Joseph and Nathan Walker joined them with three seconds to go.

“Honestly I just saw Schenner got grabbed from behind by a guy so I grabbed (Mark) Scheifele to even it up� Neighbours said. “Then next thing you know, my head came out of a headlock and there were five guys fighting. That’s the emotions of hockey, especially Game 1. Players are trying to assert themselves in the series, teams are trying to be physical and have a presence that’s going to be around for a seven-game series. When you have that going on for 60 minutes and then you get a moment like that at the end of the game, frustrations are going to boil over. That’s just hockey, that’s how intense it is out there. So, we’re not really looking into it too much. We’ll regroup and refocus on Game 2.�

“I think it feels like every year Game 1 in each series, a bit of a bloodbath,� said Winnipeg center Adam Lowry. “Teams are both trying to assert their dominance. Everyone’s amped up. Our style of game is we want to be a fast forechecking team, heavy, hard to play against. But we don’t need to chase hits. I think anytime a team’s chasing hits you can get them out of position. You move the puck quick, you communicate that a guy’s coming, you can kind of avoid those. They played hard. They did a real good job of making it tough to get to the net. It was a real tight game, and it was nice to come out on top of that one.�

The two goaltenders, Jordan Binnington and Connor Hellebuyck, were left out of the festivities.

“A goalie fight in playoffs would be dumb,� said Hellebuyck. “That would just be dumb.�

Top line showdown

The Blues’ top line of Neighbours, Robert Thomas and Buchnevich was often matched up against Winnipeg’s top line of Kyle Connor, Mark Scheifele and Alex Iafallo. The Jets’ line scored the critical third and fourth goals. Montgomery said he thought the Thomas line did well offensively, but needed to be “a little sharper and a little quicker� on defense.

“The third goal really bothers me because that’s our team defense not executing,� Montgomery said. “The fourth goal, to me, sometimes the other team makes a high-end play and that’s a high-end play made by two high-end players. That’s going to happen. It’s like the only way to stop Michael Jordan is to let Dean Smith coach him. You’re not going to stop him besides that. He’s going to get his looks, and we’re going to get our looks. Analytically, we had our looks as well with our top line.�

“There were a couple of shifts in the second period,� Neighbours said, “I remember our line was out there, they had some looks through the seams and stuff like that. Connor had a couple of good looks in the second. But that’s going to happen. They’re high-end players who have been here, played in the playoffs and understand the emotions, the highs and lows of it. So they’re very experienced players, guys who have been around for a long time and they’re going to get their looks.�