The Winnipeg Jets still have one game left in the regular season, but their first-round opponent is set. For the first time in Jets postseason history, they’ll face the Colorado Avalanche, with the series reportedly starting on Monday, April 22.
The Jets did well against Central Division opponents again this season, going 16-5-1, and were a perfect 3-0-0 against the Avalanche this season, outscoring them 17-4.
Here, ahead of the playoffs, we’ll take a look at each matchup from the season series.
Jets Hold Off Furious Avalanche Attack in 3rd For 4-2 Win — Dec. 7, 2023
The first matchup between the two teams didn’t occur until the Jets’ 25th and the Avalanche’s 26th game of the season. They renewed rivalries after splitting a four-game season series in 2022-23.
The game at Ball Arena seemed destined to go into the first intermission tied 0-0, but Adam Lowry sniped a goal with just three seconds to go after an excellent forecheck from Axel Jonsson-Fjallby on his own dump in that forced a turnover.
The Jets took that momentum into the second period as Kyle Connor scored 32 seconds into the frame to double the lead. Nathan MacKinnon, however, scored 1:58 later to put his team within one again, blowing by Logan Stanley and depositing a backhander high over Connor Hellebuyck.
With less than five minutes left in the second, Josh Morrissey pushed the lead to two again, slapping a puck home past Alexandar Georgiev, who was screened by his own defenceman Sam Malinski. The Jets could not take the 3-1 lead into the second intermission, however, as Joel Kiviranta scored with 29 seconds left scored a goal the refereeing crew didn’t immediately know went in — play went on for another 10 seconds until Georgiev made a glove save on Connor — but was confirmed upon review to have hit the back bar and gone straight up.
Early in the third, Morrissey and Dylan Samberg took two-straight penalties for tripping and high-sticking, respectively, to give the Avalanche a lengthy five-on-three. Despite the Avs’ furious attack and extended zone time, Hellebuyck and the Jets’ penalty killers teamed up to retain the lead.
Connor scored his second goal of the game on the empty net with 37 seconds to end it. As far as empty-netters go, it was impressive, as he intercepted a point pass intended for Bowen Byram before leaving the zone and chipping it by Byram to get in on the yawning cage alone and cement a third-straight win.
“That was a great effort, it really was,” head coach Rick Bowness said after the game. “It’s a great hockey team over there. We talked about it this morning — we want to be considered an elite team, and you’ve got to beat the teams ahead of you. And we proved tonight that we can play with anybody.”
Jets Snow Avalanche Under on South Asian Heritage Night — Dec. 16, 2023
Some games are measuring sticks for how good a team really is, regardless of how players sometimes shrug that reality off. This was certainly one of them, and the Jets measured up.
The Jets and Avalanche entered their second matchup just nine days after the first with near-identical records: the Avalanche at 18-9-2, and the Jets at 18-8-2. In the Jets’ previous game, against the Los Angeles Kings three nights earlier to cap a four-game road trip, they came roaring back from a 2-0 second-period deficit to win 5-2.
Back in the friendly confines of Canada Life Centre for South Asian Heritage Night, they kept their momentum going by putting on perhaps their best all-around team performance of the entire season.
Gabriel Vilardi, in his third game with Ehlers and Scheifele, fired the opening salvo at 13:56, and Vladislav Namestnikov doubled the lead less than two minutes later. on the power play. The Jets extended their lead in the second, with Alex Iafallo breaking an 18-game goalless streak on a slick backhander. The goal came as a result of fierce offensive-zone forecheck by the line of he, Namestnikov, and Cole Perfetti.
The Avalanche scored an early third-period power-play goal to cut the lead to 3-1, but the Jets were nonplussed and scored two more in quick succession with Vilardi scoring his second of the game on an in-tight backhander off a rebound and Niederreiter blasting home a one-timer from Namestnikov off the rush.
Jets Put Up Converted Touchdown in 7-0 Beatdown — April 13, 2024
The teams came into the most recent matchup with identical 49-24-6 records and three games each to go, with the winner getting a significant leg-up on a second-place finish and therefore home-ice advantage in the first round (at the time, the first-round series was increasingly likely, but not a 100 per cent certainty, to be between the Jets and Avalanche.)
The highly-anticipated game turned out to be a total laugher, with the Jets scoring goal after goal and Avalanche fans rendered stunned and silent. The Jets — who had executed their game plan to perfection two nights earlier with a 3-0 statement win over the Central-leading Dallas Stars — continued to play at a high level and adhere to their blueprint for success.
The Jets exploded for four goals in the first, with Sean Monahan, Vilardi, Morrissey, and Lowry all bulging twine behind Georgiev. Morrissey and Lowry’s goals came just 10 seconds apart, the fastest two goals in Thrashers/Jets franchise history. “Bang bang,” as former TSN Jets announcer Dennis Beyak often said.
The Jets kept swinging in the second even after Justus Annunen took over in Colorado’s crease, scoring three more courtesy of Tyler Toffoli, Monahan again, and Lowry again.
Scoring 10 goals in a game, something the Jets 2.0 have never done, appeared to be a distinct possibility as the third period began but the frame went by scoreless. Hellebuyck captured the 37th shutout of his career, six Jets had multi-point nights for the second-straight game against the Avalanche, and MacKinnon was held off the scoresheet at home for just the second time in 40 home games.
An Avalanche overtime loss the following day to the Vegas Golden Knights reduced their Jets’ magic number to one, and the Jets claimed home-ice advantage with a 4-3 win over the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday.
So — the Jets Will Win This Series Easily, Right?
Wrong. Very wrong.
The Avalanche have won 49 games, and will have 50 wins if they beat the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday to close out their regular season. You don’t reach 50 wins by fluke. They’re for real, and led by one of the NHL’s most prolific point-getters and potential 2024 Hart Trophy winner in MacKinnon, who has 138 points and counting. He can will them to a win singlehandedly. Right-winger Mikko Rantanen (103 points) and defenseman Cale Makar (89 points) can also do a lot of damage.
Related: Predicting the Avalanche’s 2024 Stanley Cup Playoff Lines
The Avalanche lead the entire NHL in goals with 299 and have a top-10 power play, and in any given game could easily turn the tables and thump the Jets handily if the Jets don’t stick to their defensive structure or run into penalty trouble. While Winnipeg may enter the series with on-paper advantages in the crease and with scoring depth, anything can happen in a short series. The Jets’ dominance in the season series does not guarantee postseason success, and many players have acknowledged recently the Avalanche will be much stiffer competition than they were in the final two games between them.
“Out the window, fresh slate,” Jets defenceman Neal Pionk said of the 7-0 win. “But at the same time, (we) have some confidence that we can do it.”
That’s not their best game, we know we’re going to see a lot better than that,” Bowness said. “I know their goalies had a tough night. We’re happy with what we did knowing it’s not going to look like that when the playoffs start.”
“We’re just focusing on being ready for Game 1,” Lowry said. “It’s nice to come in here (Ball Arena) and play really well, but come playoff time, we expect a better effort from them. We know they’re a much better team than they showed.
“You can’t take too much out of this. It’s nice to finish the road trip strong, it’s nice to continue playing well and go into these last two games with a lot of confidence,” he continued. (From ‘Jets won’t be taking foot off the gas with playoffs just around the corner,’ Winnipeg Free Press, April 14, 2024.)
