Avalanche Embarrassed On Home Ice By First Round Opponents

The Colorado Avalanche and Winnipeg Jets are guaranteed to play each other in round one of the playoffs. I think you can definitely say the Jets have seen Colorado’s worst…right?

On Friday, Jared Bednar said this was essentially a playoff game. He better hope his team comes out a lot better when the playoffs actually do start. Winnipeg dropped four goals on the Avalanche in the first 16 minutes of the game, chasing Alexandar Georgiev from the net on their way to a 7-0 beat down of the home team. With the loss, the Avalanche need to win both of their final two games, and need Winnipeg to lose their final two games in order to get home-ice advantage. Odds are we’ll be in Winnipeg in about a week, but we’ll find that out soon enough.

The loss was made worse by the fact that the Avalanche lost Sam Girard due to an upper-body injury. He did not return to the game.

First Period.

Woof.

That’s all I can say.

Before the Avalanche had even registered a shot on net, it was 2-0 Jets. The road team came out and suffocated Colorado, while relentlessly cycling the puck in the offensive zone. Their first goal came after Colorado failed to clear the zone a few times. Josh Manson couldn’t catch his man behind the net, and Sean Monahan snuck away from Girard in front, tapping home an Ehlers pass to make it 1-0.

A Nathan MacKinnon penalty allowed the Jets to get to work on the powerplay immediately after scoring. Manson chased his man too high up the boards, leaving Vilardi wide open at the back post. Kyle Connor hit him for an easy tap-in.

It did not get any better from there.

Sam Girard tried to rush the puck up the ice, but was met with Ross Colton’s shoulder, sending him down hard. Girard immediately went to the locker room and did not return.

At 15:07, the Jets scored on another powerplay, four seconds after Sean Walker was sent to the box for slashing. Josh Morrisey’s point shot appeared to hit something on its way to the net, beating Georgiev.

Just when you thought it couldn’t get worse, it did. Like, right away.

10 seconds later, the Jets got the puck back after a dump-in, and Adam Lowry beat Georgiev, who left a fat rebound in the slot. Georgiev broke his stick on the net in frustration, and his night was over, as Justus Annunen replaced him. It’s not all Georgiev’s fault, but at some point, you do need a goalie that can stop the bleeding.

The Avalanche were booed off the ice by the sellout crowd, and probably deserved it.

Second Period

It did really improve all that much in period two. Trying to push for a goal, the Avalanche gave the Jets odd-man rush after odd-man rush. Nathan MacKinnon took a big hit from Neal Pionk, and Ross Colton did not like that, but found himself sitting in the box for two minutes after retaliating.

All three of Winnipeg’s goals came off odd-man rushes. Toffoli, Monahan, and Lowry made it 7-0 after two periods. There really isn’t much more to say other than that. Colorado was booed off the ice by fans again after period two.

Third Period

In the third, the fans that actually remained began chanting, “We want a goal!” Doesn’t quite hit the same as “MVP!”

They did not get one.

Colorado leaves immediately on a flight to Vegas, as they’ll take on the Golden Knights Sunday afternoon.