The Winnipeg Jets dominated Colorado during the regular season, outscoring the Avalanche 17-4 in sweeping the three games.
That gave them home-ice advantage for their Western Conference first-round series, but that lasted just two games. Colorado stole home ice with a 5-2 win in Game 2 on Tuesday and hosts the next two games, starting with Game 3 on Friday night.
The Avalanche had the second-best home record in the NHL regular season but lost two games against Winnipeg, including a 7-0 drubbing on April 13. Then the Jets scored seven in the series opener on Sunday night and appeared in control with Colorado goaltender Alexandar Georgiev looking shaky in net after allowing all seven goals on just 23 shots.
Georgiev’s teammates didn’t lose confidence in him and he showed why with a 28-save performance in Game 2, including a couple of stops on point-blank chances.
“A very rough first game, obviously,” Georgiev said. “I just felt so much trust in the room from everybody and I appreciate it so much. It helped me reset, to know that they have got my back. I know I’ll help them out as well during this playoff. It was huge from them. I appreciate it.”
The biggest help was cleaning up some of the missed defensive assignments from the first game and continuing to score on Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck, who had a 2.39 goals-against average in the regular season but has been torched for 10 of Colorado’s 11 goals.
He also misplayed a dump-in late in the second period, scrambled back to his crease to make an initial save on Zach Parise but Parise scored on the rebound. Then Josh Manson scored on a breakaway through the five-hole with seven seconds left in the period.
Colorado coach Jared Bednar made an adjustment in the second period Tuesday, double-shifting Nathan MacKinnon until he could get him the right matchup. He has the last line change for the next two games and can put more pressure on the Jets.
Winnipeg can counter that by spending more time in the Avalanche zone.
“They are throwing a lot of pucks in there, just throwing them at the net,” Jets coach Rick Bowness said. “We’re not getting enough of that. We can spend more time in their zone, and the only way we’re going to do that is to win some battles low and get our defense more involved. And we’re still passing up chances. We have to fix that.”
Colorado has outshot Winnipeg 78-53 in the first two games and seemed to have solved something with Hellebuyck, who was much stingier in the regular season. He was in net for all three wins over the Avalanche and gave up just four goals.
But the playoffs are different, and the Jets are well aware of that fact.
“That’s the fun part of the playoffs,” Winnipeg forward Mark Scheifele said. “We weren’t expecting this to be an easy series. They’re a great team over there. We’ve just got to continue to roll with the punches.”
–Field Level Media
