It was a wild ride at the Pepsi Centre last night in Denver as the Jets and Avalanche met for the second of four meetings this season and the second in Denver. The Jets had just come off a 5-0 blanking of the Oilers while the Avalanche had muscled past the Islanders in strong fashion 6-1.
And now, after two meetings, it might be safe to say these teams get up for each other as last night was a another rodeo of sorts. The Avalanche manage to get out to a two-goal lead in the second period despite being outshot 16-5. One might think that by looking at the numbers the Jets goaltending Connor Hellebuyck was less than ideal but that would be incorrect.
Hellebuyck was called upon to make some incredible saves and he did, over and over again. The Jets had trouble with some of the neutral zone set ups in the Avs 1-3-1 formation and often gave up rushes back on Hellebuyck due to turnovers. For the other teams watching this game, take a page out of Bednar's book as to how he managed his team's tactics to foil one of the highest scoring teams.
Paul Maurice tried to manage his line match-ups but often he had his fourth line of Hendricks, Matthias and Dano out against the top line of Landeskog, Rantanen, and MacKinnon, with the latter two had one goal apiece.
Two start the third period the Jets had a power play and Patrick Laine thought he scored his 11th PP goal of the season, but it was off Wheeler's stick to bring the Jets to within one. Then the chase was on. The Jets came wave after wave at Jonathan Bernier who came in cold after Varlamov had left the game late in the second period. Even though the Jets controlled possession and shot share for most the game and the third period the Avs did well to limit where shots came from and control the centre of the ice against the Jets. Despite the lopsided possession Hellebuyck needed to make several key, if not spectacular saves in the third to keep his team in it.
With just over a minute left in the game and the Jets down a goal they pulled the goal to add the extra attacker. With a dump in that was going around the boards but hit a stanchion on the glass that sent the puck to the front of the net instead of behind the big break happened. Perreault missed the easy shot with Bernier scrambling back but Wheeler came in to grab the puck and on his second attempt put it up over the sprawling Bernier. Bounces.
Bounce go both ways though and in OT it was the Avs who got theirs when the trio of Connor, Byfuglein and Perreault tried to force a play that wasn't there. Instead of regrouping in the neutral zone for one final attache before the final horn and shoot out they pushed. What happened was a bit of chaos and forced pass by Perreault that could not get to Buff. It opened up and 2-on-0 breakaway rush for the Avs and Eric Johnson went up over Hellebuyck for the winning goal.
The Good:
Possession and shot share by the Jets was excellent
Goaltending, the .885 does not represent what Hellebuyck really did
The Bad:
Zone control was a bit tough and the Jets had a bit of hard time for over two periods getting any shots in the middle.
The Ugly:
4th line vs top line of the Avs, or match-ups. Exposed for one goal and had tough sledding all night.
See you Friday Buffalo.