Aarif Deen
It was too little too late for the Avalanche on Saturday.
Playing in a matinee game at Canada Life Centre against the Winnipeg Jets, Colorado waited until the final moments to get a goal past Connor Hellebuyck. They were trailing by two at the time, and it wasn’t enough. The Jets added an empty-netter moments later to defeat the Avs 3-1.
The Avalanche fell to 44-12-9 on the season and 1-2-0 in their last three games. As of the final buzzer, they have a five-point lead on the Dallas Stars for the top seed in the Central Division, with both teams having played 65 games.
Martin Necas had Colorado’s lone goal, which came with 1:16 remaining in regulation after Jared Bednar had pulled goalie Mackenzie Blackwood for the extra attacker. Blackwood faced just 17 shots and gave up two goals. The Avs had 29 shots, including 13 in the third period, and were nearly held off the scoresheet by star goalie Connor Hellebuyck. He made 28 saves.
The Avalanche looked like they had the better chances in the first period. The Jets had just two shots on goal for most of the frame, but the home team got a few late to get to five before the break. Colorado had eight on Hellebuyck.
The Avs killed off the first penalty of the game and didn’t allow a shot on goal for two minutes of PK perfection. They also drew a penalty on Mark Scheifele late in the first, setting up an opportunity to capitalize on a power play that had capitalized on six of 20 chances since March 1.
Instead, the Jets got to the break unscathed and killed off 1:39 of PK time to start the second. And just 26 seconds after exiting the box, Scheifele set up Kyle Connor, who put his 30th of the season past Blackwood glove side. The Jets carried that 1-0 lead through the midway mark of the game before adding another.
This time, it was Alex Iaffalo in front of the net, scoring on a loose puck scramble in the crease after Scheifele’s shot hit him while he was screening Blackwood. Winnipeg’s second goal came at 11:52. The Avs trailed 2-0 entering the third period.
Good: Shutdown hockey
I’ll give credit to the Winnipeg Jets here. Despite giving up the late Necas goal, the Jets found a way to shut down the Avalanche for most of the game. They had to block a ton of shots and weather a late storm, but that was more a last-ditch effort by Colorado.
Ultimately, Winnipeg played a perfect brand of shutdown hockey against the high-scoring Avs. They managed to slow the game down. Nathan MacKinnon and Martin Necas had little, if any, room to move. The top guys couldn’t generate much at all before the late surge.
You can chalk this up to a shorthanded Avalanche lineup on the back end of a road trip with an early puck drop following a terrible travel delay the prior night. That’s all true. But it doesn’t take away from how Winnipeg played the Avs, keeping the highest-scoring team in the league from generating many high-danger opportunities until it was too late.
Bad: Blown Opportunity
Given everything I just credited the Jets for, you have to, if you’re the Avs, prioritize getting the first goal. The Avalanche had some looks in the first period but they weren’t nearly as dangerous as they should have been. Instead, they let the Jets get ahead first and try to lock it down the rest of the way.
And when the third period began, that early power play was a perfect time to break through. It didn’t happen.