3 Keys: Avalanche at Jets, Game 5 of Western 1st Round

(3C) Avalanche at (2C) Jets

Western Conference First Round, Game 5

9:30 p.m. ET; CBC, TVAS, SNW, ALT, ESPN

Colorado leads best-of-7 series 3-1

WINNIPEG -- The Winnipeg Jets will try to stave off elimination when they play the Colorado Avalanche in Game 5 of the Western Conference First Round at Canada Life Centre on Tuesday.

The Jets have lost the past three games, getting outscored 16-5 and allowing two power-play goals in each of the past two.

"[The players] all feel good," Jets coach Rick Bowness said Tuesday. "Listen, they know our best hockey -- we haven't played it yet. They know that we need to play with more discipline, so we stay out of the penalty box. We need to score more some goals, they understand, but there's not one guy in that room ready to call it a day and call the season over.

"I'm very confident that we're going to see the A-game from everybody tonight. There's a great mood in the room. The practice was good, lots of energy, so we just hope that carries into the game tonight."

The Avalanche are trying to advance to the second round for the first time since 2022, when they went on to win the Stanley Cup. They were eliminated in seven games by the Seattle Kraken in the first round last season.

"Learning how to win sometimes can take some time," Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. "Experiencing heartbreak helps. I think learning from both successful series and unsuccessful ones, you kind of figure out exactly what it takes to be able to win and close out a series and survive and advance.

"We've had a pretty good mentality in our room when it comes to that, like responding after four games, keeping things going after good games all season long. We talked about things like that. They'll draw on their experience and the leadership is strong in our room. They know the importance of the game. They know we can expect Winnipeg's best game tonight. We're trying to play our best game in the series as well."

Teams that hold a 3-1 lead in a best-of-7 series are 307-32 (.906) all-time.

Here are 3 keys for Game 5:

1. Fix the kill

If the Jets are going to stay alive, they'll have to either stay out of the penalty box or be more effective when they are on the penalty kill. They have allowed six power-play goals on the 15 times they've been short-handed in four games (60 percent, 14th among playoff teams).

"We give up two more (in a 5-1 loss in Game 4 on Sunday) and at critical times," Jets captain Adam Lowry said. "You find a way to get the one kill near the end of a period. You go down 3-1 (in the game), it seems like a much more manageable hole to be coming out of as opposed to 4-1, so again, we'll keep looking at video, try to make some tweaks, and we'll go from there."

2. Stay the course

There has been plenty working well for the Avalanche through the first four games of the series. They're getting depth scoring (10 players with at least one goal), their power play has been outstanding and simply put, they've been playing their game at the highest level.

So, they're not looking to change much entering Game 5.

"It just goes back to staying tight as a group," Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar said. "I think for us, the main thing is going to be sticking to our game plan and hopefully having a good start. It's always tough to end a team's season and for us, it's going to be an extra tough test tonight."

3. Get to Georgiev

As much as the Jets need to cut back on what they're allowing, they also have to get their offense going. After scoring seven goals in Game 1, they've scored a combined five in the past three games. Are the chances there? Yes, but the Jets could be better at frustrating Colorado goalie Alexandar Georgiev.

"You look at the goals we've scored, like 'Gus' (Jets forward David Gustafsson's) goal here (in Game 2) was right around the net, a rebound," Bowness said. "We need to get some greasy goals. We do. We have to get in there.

"Like our goal in Game 4, yeah, it's on the rush and a great play, but you're not going to get too many of those. We need more traffic down by the net."

Avalanche projected lineup

Valeri Nichushkin -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Mikko Rantanen

Artturi Lehkonen -- Casey Mittelstadt -- Zach Parise

Miles Wood -- Ross Colton -- Nikolai Kovalenko

Brandon Duhaime -- Yakov Trenin -- Andrew Cogliano

Devon Toews -- Cale Makar

Samuel Girard -- Josh Manson

Jack Johnson -- Sean Walker

Alexandar Georgiev

Justus Annunen

Scratched: Arvid Holm, Caleb Jones, Chris Wagner

Injured: Jonathan Drouin (lower body), Joel Kiviranta (lower body)

Jets projected lineup

Nikolaj Ehlers -- Mark Scheifele -- Gabriel Vilardi

Kyle Connor -- Sean Monahan -- Cole Perfetti

Nino Niederreiter -- Adam Lowry -- Mason Appleton

Alex Iafallo -- David Gustafsson -- Tyler Toffoli

Josh Morrissey -- Dylan DeMelo

Dylan Samberg -- Neal Pionk

Nate Schmidt -- Colin Miller

Connor Hellebuyck

Laurent Brossoit

Scratched: Rasmus Kupari, Collin Delia, Axel Jonsson-Fjallby, Logan Stanley

Injured: Morgan Barron (lower body), Brenden Dillon (hand), Vladislav Namestnikov (face)

Status report

Kiviranta, a forward, skated Tuesday but is not expected to play. He remains day to day. … Drouin, a forward, did not skate. He is out for the series. … The Avalanche recalled Wagner, a forward, from Colorado of the American Hockey League on Monday. … Namestnikov, a forward, will not play after taking a puck to the face in Game 4. Gustafsson enters in his place. … Dillon, a defenseman, will miss a second straight game after cutting his hand in Game 3. … Perfetti will be making his playoff debut after playing 71 games during the regular season. He will be on the second line, with Toffoli moving to the fourth line. … Jonsson-Fjallby, a forward, comes out. … Miller enters in place of Stanley, a defenseman.