DENVER— Out broke Casey Mittelstadt and Artturi Lehkonen on a rush that left Dylan DeMelo and Mark Scheifele in the dust and the Winnipeg Jets in a hole they weren’t going to be able to climb out of.
This goal, which helped pad a lead the Colorado Avalanche wouldn’t relinquish en route to a 6-2 win in their first game of these Stanley Cup Playoffs in front of their fans at Ball Arena, perfectly encapsulated why they lead this series 2-1.
Their speed was too much for the Jets to handle on the play, with DeMelo and Scheifele tripping over themselves just to catch up, and it’s overwhelmed them since the games began at Canada Life Centre last week.
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Given how it’s gone so far, we’re not sure how the Jets will stop the Avalanche cascade from ending their season.
“You slow them down with better puck management in their zone and making sure that we don’t get our forwards trapped deep because, again, their D are coming,” said Jets coach Rick Bowness after Friday’s loss.
“If it’s a four-on-three, we can live with that,” he added, “but they had a couple of four-on-twos and they do an excellent job of pushing our D back and gaining the blue line and curling up and finding that second wave. Our forwards are going to have to reload and know exactly where they’re going to take away that rush.”
Through three games, the Jets haven’t been able to do that enough.
That, coupled with their indiscipline in the third period of Friday’s game, has proven costly.
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Nathan MacKinnon tied this one 2-2 on the power play just 2:11 into the third period while Winnipeg’s Mason Appleton was serving a penalty for tripping Miles Wood.
Valeri Nichushkin scored 2:28 later while Jets forward Gabriel Vilardi was serving the last two minutes of a double-minor for high-sticking Devon Toews.
And it was after Lehkonen made it 4-2 off that rush with Mittelstadt that Ross Colton buried one. Neal Pionk had stepped out of the box two seconds earlier, following his puck-over-glass penalty.
Toews capped the five-goal period for the Avalanche with an empty-net goal at 16:25.
It was the second time in this series they had scored at least four in a frame, making it the second time since the puck dropped in October that the Jets had allowed as many in a frame.
They were so good at stifling and suffocating everyone they played through the regular season, accumulating 52 wins and winning the William M. Jennings Trophy for allowing the least goals against in the league. They beat the Avalanche twice in this building (where the Avs went 31-7-1 against the rest of the league) and outscored them 11-2 in the process.
But the Jets didn’t see this version of this team in those games, and they’re struggling to find the best version of themselves while failing to contain Colorado’s speed in these ones.
“Every team has their strengths,” said Jets defenceman Josh Morrissey, who scored on the power play to give them a 2-1 lead 10:50 into the second period. “You look at the way they like to play, they’re really aggressive up ice. Obviously, they’ve got a lot of speed in their lineup and they like to transition fast.
“For us, I think managing the puck is key at the blue lines, winning the blue lines and trying to sustain O-zone time on them to wear them down and slow down their game a little bit. They got some good looks off the rush tonight, and I think we can do a little bit better job of that. That’s the M.O. of their team. They’re a great team, they’re going to have plays where they’re flying and stuff will happen and we can bend, but we can’t break, which I thought we did a pretty good job of through two periods.”
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But the Jets haven’t done it well enough through the other seven that have been played in this series.
They’ve struggled under the pressure of Colorado’s forecheck, failing to breakout as cleanly as they proved capable during the regular season. They’ve also been stifled by the Avalanche’s back pressure, which has kept them from establishing the type of offensive-zone time they’re accustomed to.
It’s led to the Jets scoring just four goals over the last two games after managing seven on a weaker version of Alexandar Georgiev in Game 1.
Meanwhile, 15 of 17 Colorado goals in this series have gotten past Connor Hellebuyck, who has made big saves throughout but not enough of them to mitigate the mistakes the Jets have made in front of him.
Most of them have come chasing the Avalanche. And the Jets have spent the majority of their time chasing because they’re faulty execution at both ends of the ice has fed Colorado’s speed.
It’s hurt them, it will continue to if they don’t find a way to counter it.
The potential loss of Brenden Dillon on their backend could damaging to the Jets, as well. The rugged defenceman suffered a serious laceration to his hand in a scuffle with Avalanche forward Brandon Duhaime at the conclusion of Game 3.
“Scary, scary situation there,” Morrissey said before Bowness offered that Dillion was still being evaluated by the Jets’ medical staff.
“We’re all really concerned for him and just hoping everything’s okay,” said Morrissey.
He and the rest of the Jets will have that on their minds between now and 12:30 local time Sunday, when Game 4 is set to take place.
They will have to find a way to limit Colorado’s speed in that one, or this series is heading back to Winnipeg with the Jets’ season on the line.
