Jets face Colorado Avalanche after Friday’s win in Minnesota

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This article was published 28/11/2015 (3575 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

DENVER — The Winnipeg Jets set a pretty high standard for themselves with Friday’s 3-1 win in Minnesota but they’ll be reaching for that kind of game again when they meet the Colorado Avalanche tonight at Pepsi Center (9 p.m. CT, Sportsnet, TSN1290).

The Jets allowed the Wild just 15 shots on goal on Friday afternoon, getting goalie Connor Hellebuyck his first NHL win.

“Our chances against were the smallest number since I’ve been in Winnipeg,” Jets coach Paul Maurice declared this morning. “We were fighting like dogs.”

“It was a good template. Our challenge is to throw another one just like it in here tonight.”

Five times last season the Jets limited their opponents to 20 shots on goal.

Friday’s victory marked the end of a six-game winless streak on the road (0-5-1), the longest since 2011.

Maurice, his team back to .500 at 11-11-2, wouldn’t say this morning which goalie he’s going to start tonight against the 8-13-1 Avs.

“If you’re looking for it, I’m not giving you my goalie tonight,” the coach told reporters this morning. “Just to answer to the decision I’ll make, I want to put both these goaltenders is a position to succeed.

Pav (Ondrej Pavelec) is out for an extended period of time and I want both of these guys to seize the opportunity and be in the position to do that.”

The Jets finish their three-game road trip today by changing time zones for the third straight game and with a back-to-back episode.

“It’s nothing we’re not used to,” centre Bryan Little said. “We’re used to a tough schedule by now. It’s going to be a late game tonight so we got in early and got some time to rest.”

The team arrived in Denver mid-evening after Friday’s afternoon game in Minnesota.

Against the Wild, a renewed determination to make inroads on their poor defensive record this season was a key.

“I just think we kind of perfected it,” Little said. “We’ve been working hard to be better defensively but it takes the whole team buying in. We tried our best to play well and limit the chances against. And I feel like everyone did the right things out there.

“You run into problems when you have a few guys on the ice that aren’t on the same page. Last night I thought everyone was on the same page and it was more the style we want to play.”

The Jets are 28th in the league in goals against average (3.07) but their attention to some of those details of defending was evident on Friday.

As was an improvement in taking penalties. The Jets, the NHL’s most-shorthanded team this season, was short only once on Friday and have been short just six times in the last three games, their best three-game segment of the season.

“I usually get somewhere between 65 and 95 edits out of a game,” Maurice said. “Two days ago we talked about the good and bad and it was heavily skewed to the good (on Friday).

“It was all the smart, hard things we did in the game that kept us from the other kinds of games that we played. We stayed out of the penalty box and still found a way to play a physical game. That was a real key point.”

Friday’s win also saw rookie forward Nikolaj Ehlers snap his 14-game goalless drought with a breakaway marker to seal the deal with three minutes left.

“It felt pretty good,” he said. “I think that goal kind of gave us some extra energy to finish off the game. We got the two points that we wanted yesterday and we played the game we wanted to play.

“And I think we all feel pretty good right now.”

The Avs, who are 2-6-1 at home so far this season, will start Semyon Varlamov in goal tonight.

He defeated the Jets in Winnipeg last Monday, 4-1.

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca