Wins in Chicago, Washington, D.C., Pittsburgh, and Winnipeg have made flying the friendly skies a first class experience for the first place Colorado Avalanche after completing this most recent road trip.
Tonight, the NHL’s best team books a return fair against the recently-vanquished Winnipeg Jets as the Avs begin a three game home stand in pursuit of the top seed in the Stanley Cup Playoffs!
Colorado Avalanche (48-13-10)
The Opponent: Winnipeg Jets (30-30-12)
Time: 5:00 P.M. MDT/7:00 P.M. EDT
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Colorado Avalanche
As mentioned previously, the Avalanche come into today’s game fresh off a 3-2 victory over these same Winnipeg Jets on Thursday evening at Canada Life Center. Despite trailing early after a goal by Jets franchise center Mark Scheifele, the Avs would turn the tables with three unanswered goals—two courtesy of Nathan MacKinnon—en route to their first regular season victory in Manitoba since February 24, 2023. This game saw the return of Artturi Lehkonen, who had missed the previous eleven games due to injury. He factored in on the eventual game-winning goal with a great seeing-eye pass that MacKinnon deflected past Winnipeg goaltender Connor Hellebuyck early in the third period. Winnipeg would unsuccessfully challenge the goal for goaltender interference, but the call on the ice withstood the challenge. A late goal by Scheifele made things interesting, but the Avalanche were able to stave off a Winnipeg push to complete the road trip sweep.
With this latest victory, the Avalanche increased their point lead over the Dallas Stars—who suffered a 2-1 regulation loss to the New York Islanders earlier Thursday evening—to nine points in the Central Division, and still hold a game in hand in their possession. They remain the undisputed leader across the Central Division, Western Conference, and League standings. Dallas will be in action against Pittsburgh today, and the Minnesota Wild, who have pulled within three points of Dallas, will face Boston. Dallas has a game in hand over Minnesota, but another regulation loss—a possible fourth loss in a row for Dallas—would open the door for Minnesota to pull within a single point of second place in the Central should they defeat the Bruins today.
The stakes in the standings are getting higher and higher, and the margin for error is growing thinner and thinner. The Avs control their own destiny, and completing the home and home series with Winnipeg with another victory will only tighten their grip on what’s been a near wire-to-wire run at the top of the standings.
Coach Jared Bednar said after Thursday’s game, “It was a good effort from our guys. We gave up a couple of goals on turnovers on the D-zone walls, so there’s a couple of things we want to improve on, but for the most part, I think, [at the] end of the road trip, we played hard; we were competitive. Special teams did a really nice job tonight, and from the goaltender out, I think we had everybody involved and were able to carve out a win against a really good team, a desperate hockey team.”
Bednar made it clear to say that, even with the Avs in control of their destiny as the regular season winds down, the remaining games still mean something. “We’re still fighting for first place,” he said, “so every win’s important until they put the mark beside our [name in the] standings, so we’ve had something to play for down the stretch run here. I think we’ve had a good year, but we’re not comfortable. We’re still just kind of fine-tuning our game before going into the playoffs […] but you’re playing hungry teams every night that are jockeying for position, trying to fight [their way] into the playoffs, trying to move up the standings, so there’s still lots to play for in the season, and lots of hockey, and we certainly don’t want [our] game deteriorating over the last month of the season before we get into the playoffs, so that’s our main focus.”
Mackenzie Blackwood stopped 22 of 24 shots for the victory in Winnipeg for his third straight win. Should Bednar turn to him again today, Blackwood could tie his single season career high in wins (22) with another stellar performance. However, if Bednar continues to alternate between starting him and Scott Wedgewood, then look for Wedgewood to return to the crease. Both goalies have victories over Winnipeg this season, so Bednar won’t be lacking in confidence in either option as the four game series comes to an end today.
Bednar said this of Blackwood’s recent play and his goaltending tandem as a whole: “[Blackwood] came out of the [Olympic] break playing really good, then he had a dip in a handful of his starts, and he’s gone to work, and I feel like his last handful of games here, he’s given us a great chance to win. He’s coming up with big saves when we need him, he’s been exceptional on the penalty kill, which always helps, so [I’m] pretty happy with the way both of those guys are playing in net right now.”
MacKinnon remains the NHL’s goal scoring leader (48), but remains four points behind both Edmonton’s Connor McDavid and Tampa’s Nikita Kucherov (both forwards have 114 points apiece at the time of this writing). Nečas now ranks second in team goal scoring (34), while Brock Nelson remains a close third (32). Cale Makar, who scored his 20th goal of the season against Dallas on March 18, needs only one point to reach 500 career points. It is currently unknown whether Nicolas Roy, who has not played since March 22 at Washington, will return to the lineup for today’s game.
Today’s game marks the first of a three game home stand at Ball Arena, the last extended stretch on home ice for the Avs this regular season.
Projected Lineup
Forwards:
Gabriel Landeskog – Nathan MacKinnon – Martin Nečas
Ross Colton – Brock Nelson – Valeri Nichushkin
Artturi Lehkonen – Nazem Kadri – Logan O’Connor
Parker Kelly – Jack Drury – Joel Kiviranta
Defense:
Brett Kulak – Cale Makar
Devon Toews – Sam Malinski
Josh Manson – Brent Burns
Between the Pipes:
Scott Wedgewood
Mackenzie Blackwood
Winnipeg Jets
When Winnipeg hosted Colorado at Canada Life Center two weeks ago, their playoff hopes were hanging in the balance. As mentioned in this space back then, a successful back to back weekend could prove to be the turning point in their bid to secure a postseason berth on the heels of last season’s historic run that saw them secure the top seed in the Stanley Cup Playoffs and the Presidents Trophy as the best team in the NHL. Although Winnipeg did defeat both Colorado and St. Louis in those back to back games, Winnipeg then proceeded to lose four of its next six games—including their most recent loss to Colorado on Thursday evening—and now remain five points outside the last wild card spot in the Western Conference, currently occupied (somehow) by the Nashville Predators.
With ten games remaining on their regular season schedule, Winnipeg has a lot of work ahead of them. Four of those games are against teams also chasing a wild card berth: Seattle (one point ahead of Winnipeg), San Jose and St. Louis (both one point behind Winnipeg), and Utah (currently eight points ahead of Winnipeg and holding the first wild card position in the Western Conference). While the term, “must-win” is thrown around a lot in sports, these four games are games that Winnipeg absolutely cannot afford to lose. A win today against Colorado would certainly help their cause, but games against Dallas, Vegas, and the surging Columbus Blue Jackets are also monumental hurdles for Winnipeg to clear in their desperate push to sneak into the postseason. It’s not an impossible task, but the odds are growing longer and longer, and as much as Winnipeg must focus on their own performance, they’ll also need to get some help to keep the teams they’re chasing close enough to pass.
With his pair of goals against Colorado on Thursday, Scheifele continues leading all Winnipeg skaters in goals (34), assists (54), and points (88). Kyle Connor is second in all three categories (32G/50A/82PTS). Defenseman Josh Morrissey still leads all Winnipeg defensemen in all three categories (12G/37A/49PTS). After missing the previous game against Colorado two weeks ago, defenseman Neal Pionk played in his fourth game on Thursday night since his return from injury on March 21. Former Avalanche forward Vladislav Namestnikov will remain out of the lineup due to injury. With so much riding on the line for Winnipeg, it’s almost a given that Hellebuyck will make his third consecutive start—his 50th of the season—today.
Today marks the first of a four game road trip for Winnipeg, its final extended road trip of the season. By the time this road trip is over, they may know if they’re cleared for a postseason takeoff, or if they’ve been grounded on the runway.
Projected Lineup
Forwards:
Kyle Connor – Mark Scheifele – Alex Iafallo
Cole Perfetti – Adam Lowry – Gabe Vilardi
Isak Rosén – Morgan Barron – Brad Lambert
Cole Koepke – Jonathan Toews – Gustav Nyquist
Defense:
Josh Morrissey – Neal Pionk
Dylan Samberg – Elias Salomonsson
Haydn Fleury – Dylan DeMelo
Between the Pipes:
Connor Hellebuyck
Eric Comrie
