Kyle Connor had two goals and an assist for the Winnipeg Jets in their 7-6 win against the visiting Colorado Avalanche in Game 1 of their Western Conference first-round series on Sunday evening.
Adam Lowry also scored two goals, Mark Scheifele had a goal and two assists, Josh Morrissey had a goal and an assist and Connor Hellebuyck made 40 saves for the Jets, who ended the regular season with an eight-game winning streak.
Cale Makar had a goal and two assists, Nathan MacKinnon and Artturi Lehkonen each had a goal and an assist and Alexandar Georgiev made 16 saves for the Avalanche, who were swept by Winnipeg in the three-game regular-season series, getting outscored 17-4.
“A little nervous energy coming out in the first 5-10 minutes. You could see it. They came out real strong,” Connor said. “Kind of a simple game plan, got us on our heels right away, but we just kept responding. We really showed the depth of our team. I think everybody chipped in, all four lines.”
Game 2 is Tuesday night in Winnipeg.
Winnipeg took the lead for good at 8:57 of the second when Lowry finished a two-on-one rush to give the Jets a 4-3 lead.
Lowry scored again at 3:31 of the third period to make it 5-3. His shot from in close hit both posts before slightly crossing the goal line.
Connor followed with a power-play goal to stretch the lead to 6-3 at 5:51.
The Avalanche answered with a power-play goal by Lehkonen on a deflection to cut it to 6-4 at 6:29, but Connor scored again at 8:54 to make it 7-4.
Makar scored on a wrist shot through traffic while on a power play to cut it to 7-5 at 12:24.
“Tough to hear each other talk in here. It was rocking pretty good, but I thought we stuck with it when we gave up those two power-play goals,” Connor said. “We stayed calm. Obviously, we’re going to look to make some adjustments moving forward here, but overall we’ll take it any way we can get it.”
Casey Mittelstadt scored from in close with 30 seconds left to make it 7-6.
Both teams scored three goals apiece in a span of 9:43 of the first period.
Valeri Nichushkin scored on a wrist shot from the right circle to give the Avalanche a 1-0 lead at 6:10.
Morrissey took a wrist shot from just inside the blue line that sailed through traffic and hit the net to tie it 1-1 at 8:02.
Winnipeg moved ahead 2-1 at 11:57 when Avalanche defenseman Josh Manson turned the puck over in his zone and Vladislav Namestnikov scored with a one-timer.
“We were up at certain times in the game and then, kind of a couple mistakes, and they’re right back in it,” Makar said. “They’re a team that’s going to capitalize on all those little things, so for us it’s just cleaning those up, making sure this next game we dial that in a little bit.”
“Unfortunately, all the mistakes that we made tonight ended up in the back of our net,” Makar added.
Winnipeg defenseman Dylan Samberg then turned the puck over behind his net and Miles Wood took advantage to tie it 2-2 at 14:47.
Colorado scored 18 seconds later when MacKinnon capitalized off another turnover and scored with a wrist shot from the left circle to move the Avalanche ahead 3-2 at 15:05.
The Jets tied it 3-3 at 15:53 when Scheifele scored off a short centering pass from Gabriel Vilardi.
–Field Level Media
