Jets drop fourth straight in 5-4 OT loss to Avs

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This article was published 08/04/2022 (1248 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There was a time, not very long ago, when Friday night’s clash at Canada Life Centre looked like a potential first-round playoff matchup. In that sense, perhaps it’s a good thing the Winnipeg Jets didn’t mortgage the future at the trade deadline by pulling out all the stops to make it happen.

Because a date with the Colorado Avalanche is likely to end the way all three head-to-head meetings with the NHL’s top-ranked team have this year — in defeat. Although at least Winnipeg managed to make this latest loss respectable, falling 5-4 in overtime. This, after being outscored in 13-4 in two previous games down in Denver (7-1, then 6-3) earlier this year.

Progress!

The Jets are now winless in four games to fall to 33-28-11 on the year. They are seven points out of the final Western Conference wildcard spot with 10 games remaining. The Avalanche improve to a league-best 51-14-6. As Calgary coach Darryl Sutter recently opined, whoever has the honour of facing them in early May is probably in for a rude awakening. “It’s going to be a waste of eight days,” he predicted.

Of course, that also steps up the pressure on Colorado, who pretty much have a “Stanley Cup or bust” mentality. Good luck with that, gentlemen.

There’s no such talk around here, at least not anymore. Winnipeg was coming off a lacklustre performance against lowly Detroit on Wednesday night, one which pretty much snuffed out any hopes of a minor miracle down the stretch. They were also without captain Blake Wheeler, who is battling an upper-body injury. Given all that, along with how Colorado had previously pummelled them, this had the makings of a potential blowout on paper.

“Obviously we understand the situation and where we are in the standings. We kinda had a conversation about not quitting, and how do we want to look at this next stretch of games here,” defenceman Josh Morrissey said of his club’s spirited effort. “Obviously we’re not happy with where we are, but at the same time, what kind of team do we want to be, what kind of group do we want to be in there? What kind of fight do we want to show each other?”

When Nicolas Aube-Kubel opened the scoring just 5:10 into the game — banking a pass attempt off the skate of Brenden Dillon and behind Connor Hellebuyck — you could almost sense the boulder was about to start rolling downhill. But give the Jets credit — they didn’t just stand around, helplessly awaiting the inevitable. In fact, they pushed back. Repeatedly.

“That’s what we’ve been talking about. The desperation level,” said Morrissey. “You know, battling every night no matter what the situation is for us. I thought we did that for a lot of this game.”

Mark Scheifele tied it at 10:32 of the first period, finishing off a pretty passing play with linemates Paul Stastny and Nikolaj Ehlers. It’s the 28th goal of the year for Scheifele. The line connected again later in the frame, this time with Scheifele feeding Ehlers for his 23rd of the campaign at 17:35. Colorado blue-liner Bowen Byram had attempted to clear his zone, but his pass was picked off by Scheifele, who found Ehlers all alone in the slot.

“We’re trying to grow our chemistry as a line. Every single day, every time we step out on the ice,” said Ehlers. “I think that in the last couple games we’ve had some really good chances that just haven’t gone. And today they did. That’s great, but it still wasn’t enough.”

Winnipeg took the lead into the first intermission, but it would be rather short-lived.

Andre Burakovsky tied it at 3:55 of the middle frame, using Dylan DeMelo as a perfect screen and firing a shot through both the Jets defenceman and Hellebuyck. Erik Johnson then gave the visitors the lead at 9:11 when he fired a wicked wrister straight through the Winnipeg netminder.

J.T. Compher had a chance to extend the lead later in the period when he was hooked by Brenden Dillon on a breakaway, but his shot attempt sailed way wide. No biggie for the high-flying Avalanche, as Nathan MacKinnon crashed the crease and buried a rebound at 4:04 of the third that seemingly put this one to bed.

Only it didn’t.

The red-hot Scheifele brought the crowd to life when he sniped his second of the night at 16:25. He has been on an offensive tear of late and now has 16 points (six goals, 10 assists) in his last 10 games.

And the building came completely unglued when Ehlers tied it with 16 seconds remaining in regulation, a rather improbable development given what happened seconds earlier. MacKinnon looked to have a clear path to an empty-netter that would have made it 5-3, only for Morrissey to make a terrific, sliding save.

“I don’t think I can use words for what’s going through my head when you see that,” Morrissey said of his game-saving stop. “Just try to do whatever you can to make a save. I didn’t play a whole lot of goalie in road hockey. More like mini-sticks back in the day, kicked the foot out. I’ll tell Flats (Jets goalie coach Wade Flaherty) he should work on that with the goalies.”

That was followed almost immediately by Mikko Rantanen cross-checking Ehlers, gifting the Jets a power play they took full advantage of.

“At that point, you’ve just got to shoot everything,” said Ehlers. “With the traffic we had in front of the net, I was lucky enough to get that bounce and put it in the net.”

However, Ehlers was then on the wrong end of an infraction just 45 seconds into the three-on-three skills competition, as referee Wes McCauley whistled him for slashing MacKinnon. And with plenty of time and space to work with, the Avalanche got the winner at 2:42 when dynamic defenceman Cale Makar one-timed a Rantanan feed past Hellebuyck.

So close, yet so far.

“It is what it is,” Ehlers said of the penalty. “That’s hockey.”

Both Winnipeg and Colorado went 1-for-3 with the man advantage. Hellebuyck finished with 32 saves on 37 shots, while Pavel Francouz stopped 39 of 43 pucks directed his way.

Winnipeg now heads to eastern Canada for back-to-back games on Sunday and Monday against Ottawa and Montreal.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg