Jets hammer defenceless Avs

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This article was published 13/04/2024 (537 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

DENVER — Never mind a statement game. This was downright domination.

With second place in the Central Division at stake, the Winnipeg Jets steamrolled the Colorado Avalanche 7-0 Saturday afternoon before a stunned crowd at Ball Arena.

While it won’t count for anything tangible when the Stanley Cup playoffs begin this week, there could be no more palpable reinforcement of what the Jets can accomplish when the commitment to playing team defence is a top priority.

“We like how the majority of this road trip went, outside of Nashville. So we’ll look to continue that when we get home,” said Jets captain Adam Lowry, who scored twice to pace the offensive attack along with Sean Monahan, who scored two of his own.

“We’re not going to have success in the playoffs if we don’t play with that solid defensive structure. We have world-class goaltending and we can rely on that some nights but to have success and go on a run, we’re going to need to play well in front of him and do the little things. (Nikolaj Ehlers) turns it over and makes two huge shot blocks. It’s 7-0 but when you’re playing for your goaltender, it’s little things like that that go a long way.”

Gabriel Vilardi, Tyler Toffoli, Josh Morrissey also scored for the Jets, who won their sixth consecutive game and improved to 50-24-6 on the season.

The Jets head home to face the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday before closing out the regular season against the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday.

The Avalanche faces the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday before facing the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday.

As for the standings race, the Jets are up two points over the Avalanche, but also own the first tiebreaker with 44 regulation wins, so they’re in the driver’s seat to have home-ice advantage in the first round.

“Give our guys credit, they’ve battled hard all year to put us in a position to take advantage of home ice,” said Jets head coach Rick Bowness, whose team finished with a franchise record for road wins with 25. “We know they’re a lot better than that. They’re a great hockey team over there. They are. They have elite players, the coaches have got them playing hockey. Today, that’s not their hockey team.”

The Jets also swept the season series with the Avalanche 3-0 and outscored them 17-4, though that’s not going to mean much when the real games start next week.

“Out the window, fresh slate,” said Jets defenceman Neal Pionk. “But at the same time, (we) have some confidence that we can do it.”

Let’s take a closer look at what transpired on the ice in the Mile High City on Saturday:

THE START: It didn’t take long to figure out what the Jets were going to do for an encore after delivering one of their most complete efforts of the season Thursday against the Dallas Stars.

The Jets showed a commitment to structure out of the gate and won a bunch of races and puck battles and were eventually able to score four times in the opening period, chasing goalie Alexandar Georgiev — who was under siege while facing 15 shots.

“Certainly one of our best of the year. It was,” said Bowness. “We came out and wanted to play aggressive against them, and we did. We won some faceoffs, the power play was outstanding. That got us going, too. That’s not their best game, we know we’re going to see a lot better than that. 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.”

Finding consistency has been a battle for the Jets at times during the second half, but they certainly seem to be peaking at the right time.

THE ADVANTAGE: Speaking of goaltending, the belief is that the Jets hold a significant advantage between the pipes in a playoff series.

And while Georgiev — or backup Juustus Annunen — were far from the reason the Avalanche were blown out, Connor Hellebuyck came through with another impressive outing in what has been a Vezina-worthy season.

Making his 59th start of the campaign, Hellebuyck stopped 31 pucks to record his fifth shutout of the season and 37th of his NHL career.

“(Hellebuyck) gives us a ton of confidence,” said Pionk. “(It) lets you play freely, make some plays. And like I said, when we play these good teams, they’re gonna make some plays no matter what we do. We could play a perfect game and still give up a few scoring chances and that’s where the goalie helps us out.”

By getting consecutive shutouts from Hellebuyck and Laurent Brossoit (who has three goose eggs in 22 appearances, including 21 starts), the Jets could have an advantage over a lot of teams when it comes to goaltending.

THE SLUMP BUSTER: Lowry has been doing an excellent job at even strength, limiting the offence produced by the opposition and on the penalty kill, but he had gone 17 games without scoring a goal. So when he picked up a loose puck and stuffed it past Georgiev to make it 4-0, there was an element of relief attached to it.

“I don’t know, it’s springtime. I was ice cold so it’s nice to heat up a little bit,” said Lowry, who is up to 12 goals and 35 points in 80 games. “It was nice to see the first one go in and the second one was a bonus.”

On the second goal, Lowry elected to shoot through the five-hole on a two-on-one rush when the D-man cheated toward the other Jets player.

“Guys joke that I’m addicted to it,” said Lowry. “It was one of those things that I saw and tried to take advantage of.”

Bowness loved seeing Lowry rewarded for his efforts.

“He’s so consistent every night,” said Bowness. “He just lays it on the line,” said Bowness. “From a coaching perspective, you couldn’t ask for more than what Adam’s given us, both from on and off the ice. He’s been a great captain, a great leader in the room, a great leader on the ice. When you play that hard as he does every night, once in a while you want that reward and he got it.”

THE HIT: Avalanche centre Nathan MacKinnon isn’t on the receiving end of big hits very often and it looked like he was caught by surprise when Jets defenceman Neal Pionk stepped up on him during the second period. It was a hard, clean check and the Avalanche spent the rest of the shift chasing after Pionk.

After the whistle sounded, Avalanche forward Ross Colton took a roughing minor that left his team short-handed.

“I was just taking the angle on him. I think he lost his balance more than anything,” said Pionk. “So yeah, that’s how I saw it.”

So what did Colton say to you on the way by?

“(He) said, ‘Is it snowing in Winnipeg?’ And I said, ‘No’ and then ‘Yeah,’ ” quipped Pionk.

Pionk had some tough outings recently, but he’s at his best when he’s playing an aggressive game and taking the body. This is the kind of play the Jets are going to need from Pionk when the playoffs begin.

“He made a big hit,” said Bowness. “Just as important as the hit was was his discipline. He didn’t retaliate.”

MacKinnon was held off the scoreboard on home ice for just the second time in 40 games this season.

Pionk had some success in the playoffs frustrating Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers and he’d love to do the same to MacKinnon, who is having a Hart Trophy-calibre season.

“Best in the world, right? Like those are arguably 1A, 1B, so that’s always a challenge,” said Pionk. “I think any athlete looks for that ultimate challenge and that’s what it is when you play those two.”

EXTRA, EXTRA: The Jets didn’t make any changes to their lineup on Saturday, which left defencemen Nate Schmidt and Colin Miller and forwards Cole Perfetti and Rasmus Kupari as healthy scratches.

Because there were a couple of question marks related to health, Schmidt and Perfetti took the pre-game skate. Nino Niederreiter missed a fifth consecutive game with a leg laceration. The expectation is that Niederreiter will return to the lineup for the Jets on Tuesday against the Kraken.

Jets forward Vladislav Namenstnikov didn’t take a shift in the final 11:22 of the contest, while Monahan didn’t take a shift in the final 9:08 but Bowness said there was nothing to be concerned about. The players are a bit banged up, but the score allowed the Jets to give them some additional time for recovery.

Toffoli had a team-leading five shots on goal and eight shot attempts in the contest. The line with Monahan, Toffoli and Ehlers has contributed three goals and seven points at even strength since being reunited on Thursday.

ken.wiebe@freepress.mb.ca

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