Avalanche offense explodes in victory over Jets

HIGHLIGHTS

GAME RUNDOWN

The Colorado Avalanche came into today’s matinee affair against the Winnipeg Jets desperately needing an injection of hope despite their standing as by far the last place team in the NHL. Early on, that’s exactly what they got.

The Avalanche came out firing on all cylinders and put pressure on the Jets. A Matt Nieto rush led to a Dustin Byfuglien Tripping penalty and the Avs actually capitalized on the opportunity when Francois Beauchemin made a great play to keep the puck in the offensive zone and moved it to Jarome Iginla, who showed he can still bury the puck with a little space.

It wouldn’t be an Avalanche game without some serious teeter-totter action, however, and after John Mitchell hit the post on a mini-breakaway, the Jets came down the ice and Adam Lowry walked in front of the Avs net while Eric Gelinas allowed him to largely be uncontested and Lowry slipped a soft goal past goaltender Calvin Pickard to tie the game.

The first period then hit a significant lull in which teams struggled to generate much offense at all before the Avalanche took advantage of a lazy Jets icing by putting their top line on the ice against Winnipeg’s fourth unit. The matchup worked well as Mikko Rantanen, Gabriel Landeskog, and Nathan MacKinnon crashed the net in front of Jets netminder Ondrej Pavelec and MacKinnon tapped home a loose puck for the 2-1 lead going into the second period.

The Jets didn’t care much for that lead and Lowry notched his second of the game just 29 seconds into the second period, a power-play goal helped by Cody Goloubef not doing anything to tie Lowry up in front of the net.

After a rough start to the period, Colorado eventually found their legs and started putting some of the pressure back on Winnipeg. Pavelec made unbelievable glove saves on MacKinnon and Matt Duchene just minutes apart to keep the game tied but a Patrick Wiercioch slap shot got a huge bounce off the back boards and Matt Nieto slammed home the rebound into an empty net, giving Colorado a 3-2 lead.

The third period began with the Avalanche still leading, a situation they’ve only found themselves in 11 times all year (including today), and instead of coming out and giving up the game-tying goal immediately, the Avalanche smelled a little blood and went for it as Blake Comeau and Iginla combined for a great cycle that led to Iginla finding a wide open Carl Soderberg, who had just stepped on the ice, for a one-timer that beat Pavelec and pushed the lead to 4-2.

Nikita Zadorov’s reign of chaos throughout the game, which saw him deliver huge hits on several of Winnipeg’s stars, came to a head in the third period after he destroyed Scheifele for the second time and Jacob Trouba decided enough was enough so he jumped Zadorov from behind. A litany of penalties were handed out despite Zadorov’s clean hit on Scheifele and the teams returned to regularly scheduled hockey.

The Avalanche got the best of that hockey in the end when they held off any potential Jets comebacks and Nieto potted an empty-netter for his second goal of the game to bring the game to its final score of 5-2. It was Colorado’s first regulation home win since November 15 against the Los Angeles Kings.

THREE STARS

1. Jarome Iginla
2. Adam Lowry
3. Matt Duchene

PLAY OF THE GAME

Nikita Zadorov crushing players left and right all game long got the Jets completely off their game and created havoc in the third period.

TURNING POINT

Soderberg’s goal gave the Avalanche a two-goal cushion, something they have very rarely enjoyed this season.

BY THE NUMBERS

WHAT’S NEXT

Colorado looks to get a little revenge their next game as they welcome in the Montreal Canadiens, who memorably smoked the Avalanche 10-1 in Montreal, on Tuesday night. Puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m. local time.