The Colorado Avalanche made it through most of their series against the Winnipeg Jets without much from Mikko Rantanen, but their All-Star winger helped them punch their ticket to the second round, scoring two third-period goals in Colorado’s 6-3 Game 5 win.
The Avs were in a clinching position thanks largely to a lethal power play, dialed-up production from players like Valeri Nichushkin and Artturi Lehkonen and improved goaltending from Alexandar Georgiev. Rantanen took them over the edge, breaking a 3-3 tie with a net-front tip past Connor Hellebuyck at 4:11, then converting a rush feed from Nathan MacKinnon less than four minutes later.
WHAT A PASS FROM MACKINNON TO RANTANEN FOR A 5-3 LEAD 🎉#GoAvsGo | #ALLIN pic.twitter.com/eTktfcIBQw
— x – Colorado Avalanche (@Avalanche) May 1, 2024
Georgiev finished with 33 saves on 36 shots. Colorado’s goal scorers were Nichushkin, Yakov Trenin, Lehkonen, Rantanen and Josh Manson (on an empty net). They await the winner of the Stars versus Golden Knights series.
The Jets, meanwhile, lose in the first round for a second consecutive season. Hellebuyck allowed five goals on 29 shots. Kyle Connor, Josh Morrissey and Tyler Toffoli were the goal scorers for Winnipeg.
Jets can’t match Avalanche again
There are moments in a game when championship-caliber teams assert themselves. In Game 5, as in the series, every Jets push was met with a successful Colorado counter.
When Manson gifted Winnipeg a 1-0 goal, banking his clearing attempt off Lehkonen and into his own goal, the Jets could only keep the lead for two minutes and three seconds. When the Jets killed off Neal Pionk’s cross-checking penalty in the second period, momentum theirs to seize, Trenin bullied his way past Pionk to the net for the go-ahead goal.
Morrissey’s 2-2 goal kept the game tied for less than seven minutes. Toffoli’s equalizer tied things for 2:05. The Avalanche’s resilience was the stuff you see from championship teams, while Winnipeg’s inability to get out of its own way, returning Colorado’s own goal with one of its own, then getting beaten in front of its net and off the rush, is what sank the Jets in the game and in the series. They’re going home because, try as they might, they couldn’t quell Colorado’s unrelenting pressure.
Nichushkin punctuates monster series
We know Colorado’s elite players can get the job done; the Avs are in this spot because of regular-season greatness from MacKinnon, Rantanen, Cale Makar and Devon Toews. Heading into the series, though, and the playoffs at large, it was fair to wonder whether their second layer was good enough to carry its share of the load.
Question answered, if only due to Nichushkin’s play. His first-period goal was his seventh of the playoffs thus far and sixth on the power play, tying franchise records for the most goals in a single series (Joe Sakic in 1996, Réal Cloutier in 1982) and longest goal streak to start a playoff year.
Colorado did plenty to augment its secondary scoring during the season, adding Casey Mittelstadt, Zach Parise and a handful of relevant bottom-sixers but none of that is on track to be quite as impactful as getting Nichushkin back to top form after his time in the Player Assistance Program. He’s got skill, size, defensive ability and a knack for finding the net in plenty of different ways, and he’s doing it with a frequency that should concern the rest of the league.
Bowness goes down swinging
Rick Bowness waited until Game 5 to dress Cole Perfetti or give trade deadline acquisition Colin Miller his Jets playoff debut. He reunited Nikolaj Ehlers, Mark Scheifele and Gabriel Vilardi — the line Winnipeg rode to the top of the NHL standings when Connor was hurt — and gave himself his most balanced lineup of the playoffs.
It led, in part, to the closest game of the series through 40 minutes. Connor, Scheifele and Ehlers were all dangerous. Perfetti’s second-period net drive nearly yielded Connor a go-ahead goal. The Jets’ breakout looked improved, too, with aggressive stretch pass options looking like a smart adjustment.
Then, with the Jets down 3-2 on a bad bounce heading into the third period, Bowness went back to what we’ve always known was his Plan A. Perfetti sat, Connor joined Scheifele and Vilardi, and Ehlers set up Toffoli’s goal. It looked like the right play when Toffoli tied it — and, to be clear, it was Adam Lowry’s line that gave up the Avs’ fourth and fifth goals. Bowness was always better prepared to go down swinging with his aces than commit to his changeups. If ever there was proof that Jets management lets its coaches coach, this series was it.
Winnipeg maintains a club option on Bowness’ contract heading into next season. One imagines the Jets’ decisions will be made slowly and perhaps even in consultation with their respected veteran coach. For now, it remains possible Bowness has coached his final game.
Georgiev rises to the occasion
One game and change into this series, it didn’t seem like Georgiev would be up for the task. Game 1 was a catastrophe for the Avs goalie; he allowed seven goals on 23 shots and more than five goals more than expected, almost single-handedly putting his team in a 1-0 hole. Sometime during the second period of Game 2, though, he found himself, and he spent the rest of the series showing that he is, in fact, playing well enough for Colorado to do real damage.
A series of saves late in the second period on Tuesday night is a great example of how things have changed. With 1:49 remaining, Georgiev stopped Nino Niederreiter twice on an odd-man rush. On an ensuing power play — Sean Walker took a penalty on that same trip up ice — Georgiev made a sparkling glove save on Sean Monahan. If Georgiev were playing at his Game 1 level, or at the level he’d shown in the last month of regular-season games, we’d be having a wholly different conversation. He held up his end of the bargain, though, and his team is advancing as a result.
Jets’ effort not lacking
The loss means the Jets still haven’t won a playoff game after losing even once in a series since 2020. Their last win in a do-or-die game was back in 2018 — a Game 7 win over Nashville. This one was different, with a distinct shortage of ghosts.
Scheifele had jump from his first shift. Connor, who was one of the biggest absentees in the Game 5 loss to Vegas last season, played one more strong two-way game in a long line of them — dynamic with the puck, committed off it. In the second period, when Pionk took a cross-checking penalty, Lowry and company were all over the penalty kill to get the Jets through the storm. Then, when Miles Wood held up Miller for a penalty in Winnipeg’s zone, Morrissey made the Avalanche pay: It was a power-play rocket, set up by Scheifele and Vilardi. Ehlers assisted the third period’s tying goal and made tough plays at both blue lines, while Hellebuyck kept the Jets in the game until the very end.
Winnipeg’s players looked in the mirror before Game 5 and asked how they could be better. The core pieces delivered as best they could. It wasn’t enough to extend the series but this particular loss contained plenty of pushback.
(Photo: James Carey Lauder / USA Today)
