Mikko Rantanen, J.T. Compher and Nathan MacKinnon each had a goal and an assist for the visiting Colorado Avalanche in a 5-1 win against the Winnipeg Jets on Friday night.

Bowen Byram and Matt Nieto also scored and Alexandar Georgiev made 26 saves for the Avalanche, who have won four in a row to pull within one point of the Minnesota Wild for third place in the Central Division and within two of the second-place Jets.

Mason Appleton scored and Connor Hellebuyck stopped 21 of 26 shots before he was replaced by David Rittich, who stopped all 10 shots he faced for Winnipeg, losers of four of its past five games.

The Avalanche, who had not played since a 6-5 overtime win against the Edmonton Oilers on Sunday, scored four goals in the first 11 minutes.

MacKinnon received a backhand pass from Valeri Nichushkin at the Winnipeg blue line and scored on a breakaway 19 seconds into the game, giving him at least 20 goals for the sixth straight season.

The Jets tied it 1-1 at 3:12.

Blake Wheeler dove to pass the puck back to defenseman Nate Schmidt while on a power play. Schmidt took a shot from just inside the blue line that Appleton tipped into the net from the front of the crease for his second goal of the season.

Wheeler’s assist was the 800th point of his Atlanta/Winnipeg career.

Colorado caught one of Winnipeg’s defensemen pinching too far up the ice and Rantanen got loose for a 2-on-1 rush with Evan Rodrigues. Rantanen opted to shoot and hit the net for his 37th goal of the season, moving the Avalanche back in front 2-1 at 4:32.

Compher scored on a deflection off a point shot to make it 3-1 at 7:34.

Byram scored on Colorado’s fifth shot on goal, a wrist shot from the slot, to make it 4-1 at 10:58.

Nieto scored the lone goal of the second period off a centering pass from Compher to extend the lead to 5-1 at 10:59.

Colorado played without standout defenseman Cale Makar, who has been ruled out of both games this weekend because of post-concussion symptoms.

–Field Level Media