GAMEDAY: Avalanche at Jets

WINNIPEG - The Winnipeg Jets return to Canada Life Centre on Tuesday night to play the Colorado Avalanche in Game 5 of their best-of-seven Western Conference First Round series. The Jets trail three-games-to-one in the series after a pair of losses in Denver.

Despite the fact that the Jets are facing elimination tonight, the team is in a good place.

“Just had a really good meeting with them, talking with the guys a lot this morning. They all feel good. 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,” said Rick Bowness.

“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. So, I’m very confident that we’re going to see the A-game from everybody tonight.”

After scoring seven goals in Game 1, Winnipeg has scored just five in the last three games combined. Bowness mentioned on Monday that there would be some changes to the lineup and that is exactly what happened.

Nikolaj Ehlers will join Mark Scheifele and Gabriel Vilardi on the top line, Cole Perfetti makes his Stanley Cup Playoff debut tonight with Sean Monahan and Kyle Connor. David Gustafsson comes back into the lineup centering the fourth line with Alex Iafallo and Tyler Toffoli. Finally, Colin Miller makes his Jets playoff debut and will pair with Nate Schmidt.

“We need to score some goals. We’ve created some chances, but we’re not scoring the important goals, those timely goals that we’ve talked about. It hurt us in Game 2 when we hit the post to get to 2-1, it hurt us in Game 3 when we had that breakaway at 2-1,” said Bowness.

“We need to score some goals, so that’s why they’re going in. Colin’s got a great shot on the point; we’re hoping to get something from them. And we know Cole—it’s time to give him a good look.”

Perfetti has played 140 regular season games before making his first trip into playoff hockey.

“I think coming in tonight and playing with [Sean Monahan and Kyle Connor] there, we’ve had some success in the past. When I clammer back earlier in the year and got put with those two we found some success together,” said Perfetti.

“So, it’s there, we can do it. We’ve just got to play our game. I'm fully confident in this group and we know what we have to do, it’s a tough task but we know what we got to do, and I think we’re all looking forward to the challenge tonight and getting back in this series.”

While Perfetti will be fighting with his nerves, you can’t say the same thing about Miller who plays playoff game number 41 tonight. That being said, it will be a challenge coming into this high paced series after watching the first four contests.

“Just get into it quick,” said Miller.

“Like I said there, when you’re home for a couple of weeks and stuff like that, you just want to get a couple of shifts under your belt and go from there.”

The Jets have had a tough time slowing down the Avalanche so far in this series, but the 31-year-old defenceman says they need to get back to their game.

“I think getting back to things this team did so well all year, that good defensive game slowing them down through the neutral zone,” said Miller.

“Breaking the puck out is difficult against them because they’re such a quick team. Try to focus on those things.”

INJURY UPDATE

Vladislav Namestnikov will miss his first game of the series after being hit in the face with the puck in Game 4, he has a fractured cheekbone. Brenden Dillon is out for the second straight night after he suffered a cut on his hand at the end of the Game 3.

“Vlad’s got a colourful cheekbone; I’ll tell you that. I saw him today. Actually, I called him last night when he got home. He’s nauseous, he hasn’t eaten,” said Bowness.

“So, he’s not feeling great. Dilly, of course you know him, two broken hands he’d still want to play, but we’ll give him a couple days.”