Mikko Rantanen had two goals and an assist as the visiting Colorado Avalanche eliminated the Winnipeg Jets with a 6-3 win in Game 5 of their Western Conference first-round playoff series on Tuesday night.
Valeri Nichushkin and Artturi Lehkonen scored for the fifth straight game, Josh Manson had a goal and an assist and Yakov Trenin also scored for the Avalanche, who will play either the Dallas Stars or the Vegas Golden Knights in the conference semifinals.
Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon and Devon Toews each had two assists, while Alexandar Georgiev made 34 saves.
“Right now, we’ve got every guy playing really hard and playing the right way,” MacKinnon said.
Georgiev struggled during a 7-6 loss in the series opener before he performed well through the rest of the series.
“A lot of mental toughness,” MacKinnon said of Georgiev. “It obviously wasn’t his best Game 1. We also hung him out to dry, and (he bounced) back (with) four straight really stellar performances, made some huge saves in every game, so really excited to have him get hot.”
Kyle Connor, Josh Morrissey and Tyler Toffoli scored and Connor Hellebuyck stopped 27 shots for the Jets, who won all three games against Colorado during the regular season by a combined score of 17-4 but were outscored 28-15 in the playoff series.
MacKinnon said, “Coming into this series, I think we all had a lot of doubt, just because of how bad they beat us all season. We came in really humble and played our tails off.”
Winnipeg center Adam Lowry said, “Disappointing way to end the year, and I think everyone in this room is just upset with our level of play in this series. We knew the Avs are a great rush team. They generate a lot of offense. We believed we could slow them down.”
“Up until tonight, we didn’t do a good enough job of slowing them down, staying above them and creating the turnovers that we could. Our game looked a lot more like what we were used to seeing in the regular season tonight, but it’s an unfortunate result. You put yourself down 3-1, it’s tough to come back.”
The Avalanche moved ahead 4-3 on a tip-in from Rantanen at 4:11 of the third period. It was the first goal of the series for Rantanen, who scored 42 during the regular season.
Rantanen found the net again on a feed from MacKinnon off a rush to stretch the lead to 5-3 at 8:01.
Manson scored into an empty net with two seconds left.
The Jets took a 1-0 lead at 1:15 of the first period.
Connor was credited with the goal after Manson tried to clear a loose puck from the crease, but it hit Lehkonen and ricocheted back into his own net.
Nichushkin, who had a hat trick in the Avalanche’s 5-1 win in Game 4 and came in with six goals in the series, scored on a one-timer from the bottom of the right circle off the rush to tie it 1-1 at 3:18 of the first period.
Trenin took a shot from along the goal line that Hellebuyck saved, but Trenin beat Winnipeg defenseman Neal Pionk to the rebound, pulled the puck in front of the net and scored for a 2-1 lead at 5:42 of the second period.
The Jets went on their first power play shortly afterward, and Morrissey tied it 2-2 with a one-timer from above the slot at 6:48 of the second.
Lehkonen moved Colorado back ahead 3-2 when his wrist shot off the rush went off the stick of Pionk and into his own net at 13:45 of the second.
Lehkonen and Nichushkin are the first teammates in NHL history to score in a team’s first five postseason games.
Toffoli tied it 3-3 at 2:06 of the third with a wrist shot from the slot that sailed above Georgiev’s right pad and under his blocker.
–Field Level Media
