Jets fall to league-leading Avalanche 3-2

DENVER — It ended up being a nail-biter, rather than the blowout many expected. However, the end result on Friday night was all-too-familiar for the Winnipeg Jets: Another loss.

This one came at the hands of the NHL’s top team, the Colorado Avalanche, who raced out to an early two-goal advantage and hung on for a 3-2 victory at Ball Arena.

“There was a lot more battle, a lot more compete. We had some really good looks, some opportunities. That was a better effort than the last one,” said Jets coach Scott Arniel.

“But we’ve got to find a way to get over that hump of winning those games. Right now, we’re a delicate, fragile group and we’re finding ways to lose games.”

Morgan Barron cut a 2-0 deficit in half with a shorthanded breakaway goal late in the second period, and then Mark Scheifele answered a third-period Colorado goal with a power-play tally to keep his club in the fight. That’s as close as they would get.

“That’s a tough team to chase. Obviously they’re at the top of the standings for a reason. Gotta find a way to not put ourselves in those holes,” Barron said of falling behind early, which has been a theme of late for his team.

“I think we liked our game better. But again, that’s the frustrating part, it’s kind of been our Achilles heel, it feels like. A lot of times we play poorly, we play okay, if it’s a one-goal game we just can’t kind of find that extra juice to squeeze two points out of it. There’s obviously some things we can build on, but sooner or later we’ve got to find a way. We’re into crunch time here.”

Avalanche goaltender Scott Wedgewood stopped 20 of 22 pucks for the victory while Jets netminder Connor Hellebuyck made 24 saves. The reigning Hart and Vezina Trophy winner has given up just eight goals in four games since returning from injury, stopping 101 of 109 shots. But he only has one win to show for it, playing behind a pop-gun offence.

The Jets are well past the point of moral victories. They have now lost 16 of their last 22 games (6-14-2), falling to 15-17-2 overall and are just two points out of the basement of the NHL standings. The Avalanche continue to soar to potentially historic hockey heights, improving to a ridiculous 25-2-7.

HEAD CASE: An elbow to the face way back on Nov. 11 ended up being a much bigger deal than Haydn Fleury expected. The Jets defenceman was ultimately diagnosed with a concussion, something he’s dealt with before in his hockey career, and knew the road back could include a few bumps.

Sure enough, a couple setbacks along the way — plus a bout of the flu — made it a six-week recovery process.

“It took a little bit longer than you’d like,” Fleury said.

He was finally back in the lineup Friday night, skating beside the red-hot Logan Stanley who had scored three times in the past five games and was up to a career-best six goals on the season.

It was a tough night at the office for the pair.

Brent Burns opened the scoring at 9:45 when his shot hit Fleury’s skate and beat a surprised Hellebuyck. And then a poorly-timed pinch by Fleury — and a lost footrace by Cole Perfetti — led to a Martin Necas breakaway tally at 15:05.

Stanley did make a physical impact, crushing Nathan MacKinnon and later Necas with big hits.

GRIZZLED VETERANS: Jonathan Toews, Gustav Nyquist and Tanner Pearson had a combined 2,736 NHL games between them. That’s a lot of miles on the odometer.  Coach Scott Arniel decided to see what the long-in-the-tooth trio might look like together, putting them on a fourth line that had a combined age of 106 years old.

“My century club,” Arniel called them.

All three were signed as free agents last summer and have struggled to produce. Nyquist and Pearson have each had a handful of healthy scratches lately, but Arniel opted to dress both Friday and park Cole Koepke in the press box. He, too, was a UFA signing on July 1.

Toews showed some major frustration during the morning skate, two-handing his stick across the glass during a botched power-play drill. That pretty much sums up where things are at these days for the 37-year-old, who has one assist in his last 18 games.

The three other forwards with him on that second PP unit — Nyquist (0 goals in 25 games), Nino Niederreiter (no points in 10 games) and Vlad Namestnikov (1 assist in 22 games) have struggled mightily as well.

There were some positive signs, however.

Pearson made an impact in the game, dropping the gloves to fight Avalanche defenceman Josh Manson in the first period after he rocked Perfetti with a big hit.

“Don’t like the hit. I think bigger guy and smaller guy,” said Pearson, who is not exactly a scrapper. “Just didn’t like it and try to answer the bell.”

Nyquist contributed as well after getting bumped up to the top power play in the third period, taking the spot of the struggling Perfetti. He made a perfect slap-pass to set up Scheifele’s team-leading 17th.

Speaking of Perfetti, he took a nine-second shift early in the third period after his late second-period tripping penalty expired, then never saw the ice the rest of the game.

“A coach’s decision,” is how Arniel framed it.

PRACTICE? WE TALKIN’ ABOUT PRACTICE: The Jets have been lamenting the lack of practice time this year due to a compressed schedule given the upcoming Olympic break. So it was a curious move to see them cancel Thursday’s scheduled workout in Denver.

Arniel chalked up to flying in from St. Louis in the wee hours of the morning following Wednesday’s 1-0 loss, having to adjust to a time change and altitude and having to make the trek to the University of Denver to skate, since the game arena was being set-up for the Nuggets NBA game later that night.

“We met, actually, at the hotel, had a half hour meeting with the guys, showed some video and went over some stuff,” Arniel explained. “That was more about coming into this building and being fresh.”

There’s no question the Jets had some jump Friday, but it ultimately wasn’t enough.

“There’s stuff to clean up and stuff happens. It’s hockey. But I think for the most part, it was a good game,” said Pearson.

RESPECTFUL RIVALS: There may be plenty of hockey fans and pundits wanting to pile on the Jets for their poor play. Don’t add Avalanche centre Brock Nelson to that list.

“A pretty complete team. Probably a better team than what their record of late would show,” Nelson said prior to puck drop.

Colorado head coach Jared Bednar isn’t ready to write off Winnipeg, either.

“Every team is going to go through their little bumps in the road. Theirs came more than likely to some injuries they’ve had,” he said. ” Now they’re getting healthy and playing pretty well. We know they’re a dangerous team, they’re highly committed to the way that they play.”

CHANGES COMING? With the Jets mired in a prolonged slump, talk has naturally turned to what kind of help could be on the way.

One of the names currently blowing around in the rumour mill is Seattle Kraken forward Mason Marchment. The 30-year-old winger, who is in the final year of his current contract, has 13 points (4G, 9A) in 13 games with the Kraken who are reportedly open to trading him.

He previously played for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Florida Panthers and Dallas Stars, where he had a career-high 53 points (22G, 31A) in 2023-24. Marchment is someone the Jets have previously been interested in, given the hard-nosed way he plays.

There’s also a historical connection: Marchment’s father, Bryan, played parts of three seasons with the 1.0 Jets.

KEY PLAY: Parker Kelly’s deflection off a Josh Manson shot just 1:58 into the third period restored Colorado’s two-goal lead and proved to be the game-winner.

THREE STARS:

1. COL G Scott Wedgewood: 20 saves

2. WPG F Morgan Barron: 1 goal

3. COL D Josh Manson: 2 assists

EXTRA, EXTRA: Winnipeg went 1-for-2 on the power play and a perfect 3-for-3 on the penalty kill, including Barron’s shorthanded tally.

“You want to win the specialty teams battle. Now it’s the five-on-five goals, we need some of those again too,” said Arniel.

“We’ve got to find a way to balance our specialty teams in with our five-on-five guy. That will help us not be down and (maybe) get up on teams and maybe can run away on teams.”

Defenceman Luke Schenn came out to make room for Fleury, with defenceman Colin Miller the other healthy scratch.

This was the first of four meetings between the clubs this season. Colorado visits Winnipeg on March 14 and March 26, with the Jets returning to the Mile High City on March 28.

The Jets flew to Salt Lake City following the game and are slated to practise on Saturday. They’ll wrap up the road trip, along with the pre-Christmas portion of their schedule, by facing the Utah Mammoth on Sunday.

“We need to gain points and we’ve got to get a feel-good moment here before the break,” said Arniel.

“Again, another Central Division rival. We need to play like we did the last 50 minutes of (Friday’s) game. We need to do that for 60 (minutes).”

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