*Photo from TSN*
Winnipeg leads series 1-0
Offensive shootout coming right up. Adam Lowry scored two goals, Kyle Connor had two goals and an assist, and the Winnipeg Jets defeated the Colorado Avalanche with a 7-6 victory Sunday night in Winnipeg.
With a combined 13 goals between the sides, the Jets came out on top in the scoring duel. Lowry, Connor, Mark Scheifele, Josh Morrissey, Brenden Dillon, Gabriel Vilardi, and Nino Niederreiter all had multi point games for the Jets. This is the first time the teams have played in the playoffs.
Jets head coach Rick Bowness said of the win that "Listen, we’ll never complain about a win, especially this time of year. It wasn’t exactly how we drew it up, but if that’s the way it goes, that’s the way it goes. Their top guys took over, our top guys took over. It was just the type of game that it evolved into, and you play it out and we found a way to get the win. So, we’ll take it."
Valeri Nichushkin gave the Avalanche a 1-0 lead 6:10 into the game. Morrissey and Vladislav Namestnikov gave the Jets a 2-1 lead with back to back goals. Miles Wood and Nathan MacKinnon scored to make it 3-2 Avalanche before Scheifele scored to make it 3-3. Lowry scored the only goal of the second period to make it 4-3.
Lowry scored 3:31 into the 3rd period to make it 5-3 Jets before Connor's power play goal extended the lead to 6-3. Lehkonen scored on the power play for the Avalanche to make it 6-4 before Connor scored again to make it 7-4. Cale Makar and Casey Middlestadt scored for the Avalanche to make it a 7-6 game, which went final.
Connor said after the game that "It’s not the way we drew it up, a 7-6 game, but sometimes you’ve just got to play that game that’s in front of you. It turned into a bit of a track meet there and we know we’ve got to be better. Maybe a little nervous energy to start for us. Once we started to get going, we showed that our depth is really key."
It was Connor Hellebuyck who got the start in goal for the Jets, picking up the win on a busy night. He allowed 6 goals and made 40 saves on the 46 shots he saw from the Avalanche, giving him a .870 save percentage.
Getting the start for the Avalanche on the other side of the ice was Alexandar Georgiev, who got tagged with the loss. Georgiev only stopped 16 out of the 23 shots the Jets tested him with, recording a dismal .696 save percentage.
Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar said of the loss that "We haven't played the Jets well this year. We played a good game early in the season, but that's our first taste of us playing hard and them playing hard and seeing what's going to happen. And it's a seven-game series. I don't think a whole lot changed for us from start to finish. I thought our guys played as hard as they possibly could and as clean as they possibly could."
Game two of the series is Tuesday night in Winnipeg. The Jets try to gain a 2-0 series lead before hitting the road while the Avalanche try to pick up a road win to tie the series.
Comments
Post a Comment