On a night where Mark Scheifele passed Thomas Steen for the most NHL games played in a Winnipeg Jets uniform, he did what he could to help his team beat the best team in the league.
But two goals from Scheifele was not enough as the Jets fell 3-2 at home to the Colorado Avalanche Thursday night, putting another dent into their longshot playoff hopes.
Scheifele got Winnipeg going by opening the scoring just before the midway mark of the first period. Colorado won a draw in their own end but a clearing attempt by Devon Toews eluded Martin Necas at the point, allowing Josh Morrissey to get to it.
He sent a short pass to Kyle Connor who skated to the slot before sliding the puck to his left where Scheifele was waiting at the faceoff dot to one-time it off the back bar of the net for his 33rd of the season.
The goal also gave him 87 points on the season to tie his career high that he set last season.
The Jets couldn’t quite get to the intermission with the lead, however, as Colorado drew level with 2:20 to go. Standing in front of the net, Jack Drury tried to tip a Sam Malinski point shot past Connor Hellebuyck. Hellebuyck denied the first chance but Drury slid the rebound through the five-hole while falling to the ice to tie the game.
Winnipeg looked strong for a decent swath of the opening frame but in the end they were outshot 11-7.
The second period was all about penalty killing.
Winnipeg got the game’s first power play look 3:20 into the second but didn’t do much with it.
Colorado got their first chance at the 6:42 but the Jets penalty kill got the job done.
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They would be put under major stress at the tail end of the period as Jonathan Toews was called for hooking with 1:53 left and during the kill, Elias Salomonsson put the puck over the glass on a clearing attempt.
The Jets got to the end of the period without letting Colorado capitalize but they would still have seven seconds of 5-on-3 time to start the third before having 1:22 after that of 5-on-4 time.
But they only needed six seconds after Toews returned to the ice, before he could even get back into the Jets’ end.
After the Avalanche got set up, Nazem Kadri sent a cross-ice pass to Nathan MacKinnon at the side of the net. It went off MacKinnon’s skate and fluttered into the crease, sitting loose on the goal line, and the Avalanche superstar was the first to get to it, knocking it home for his league-leading 47th of the season.
Colorado took a penalty just over a minute later, and even though Winnipeg’s top unit spent the entire two minutes on the ice, they failed to generate any good chances.
Right as the penalty expired, Brock Nelson stepped out of the box and was sprung on a breakaway from centre ice but Hellebuyck turned aside his deke attempt to keep it a one goal game…for all of 16 seconds.
Not long after the ensuing faceoff, Winnipeg turned the puck over in the neutral zone. MacKinnon scooped up the puck and skated back into the Jets’ end before dropping it to his left to Artturi Lehkonen. Lehkonen sent a wrister on goal as MacKinnon drove hard to the net, deflecting the puck into the net right as Hellebuyck tried to glove it out of the air.
The Jets challenged the goal for goaltender interference, believing MacKinnon contacted Hellebuyck’s glove with his stick before touching the puck but the call on the ice stood, giving the Avalanche a 3-1 lead and a power play that the Jets managed to kill off.
Winnipeg found themselves on the power play again with 12:44 to go and while the Jets failed to cash in, the top unit stayed out and forced a turnover that led to Scheifele’s second goal of the night.
Lehkonen had the puck along the wall and was set to exit his own zone when Scheifele got a stick on the puck, igniting a sort of ping-pong sequence where the puck went off the stick of Brent Burns to Gabriel Vilardi back to Burns and back to Vilardi before Vilardi got control of it at the blue line.
He noticed an open Cole Perfetti on the far side of the ice and sent the puck his way before Perfetti one-touched a pass to Scheifele at the back door that Scheifele steered home for 34th of the season and 88th point to set a new career high.
Colorado picked up another penalty with just over six minutes to play when Josh Manson plastered Morgan Barron in the corner. Manson was already going to get an interference penalty on the play before Barron got up and dropped the gloves with the Colorado tough guy, who took Barron down with a big knockout punch that sent Barron to the locker room to be checked for a concussion.
Once again, Winnipeg’s power play could not solve one of the league’s most effective penalty kills, failing to generate a shot on goal.
Hellebuyck tried a few times to get to the bench for an extra attacker but was never able to as Colorado kept getting the puck back, eventually running out the clock on a 3-2 win.
Winnipeg remains five points out of a playoff spot thanks to Nashville’s loss to New Jersey.
Hellebuyck made 32 saves in defeat as Colorado outshot the Jets 15-7 in the third and 35-24 for the game. Winnipeg managed just one shot in the final nine minutes and none in the final five.
The two teams will meet again in Denver Saturday. Pregame coverage on 680 CJOB begins at 4 p.m. with the puck dropping just after 6 p.m.
