Three things - Avs even series

WINNIPEG – The Colorado Avalanche scored four unanswered goals on route to a 5-2 win over the Winnipeg Jets in Game 2 to even the series at a game apiece. David Gustafsson and Mark Scheifele scored, and Connor Hellebuyck made 27 saves for the Jets who will now fly to Denver on Wednesday for Game’s 3 and 4 of this series. The Jets penalty kill did a great job Tuesday going a perfect three-for-three and the power play went 0-for-3.

GUS BUS

The Jets fourth line chipped in with a big goal in Game 1 when Vladislav Namestnikov gave Winnipeg their first lead of the night in the first period. Tuesday night, it was David Gustafsson’s turn to contribute. Gustafsson jumped on a loose puck and hammered in his own rebound for his first career playoff goal to give Winnipeg a 1-0 lead at 3:15 of the opening frame. It was the Swedish forwards first two career shots on goal in the Stanley Cup Playoffs as well. Winnipeg took that one goal lead into the second period.

MISTAKES HURT JETS

With the game tied at two, Winnipeg made a couple of critical errors that ended up in the back of their net in the second period.  Yakov Trenin forced Connor Hellebuyck into turning the puck over behind the Jets net and Andrew Cogliano found Zach Parise and the former Wild forward scored on his own rebound to give the Avs their first lead of the night at 17:20. Then with under 10 seconds left, Josh Manson and Gabriel Vilardi jumped out of the penalty box after their roughing minors expired and Manson took a perfect pass from Nathan MacKinnon and scored on a breakaway.

GEORGIEV BOUNCE BACK

Alexandar Georgiev has not had the best of luck facing Winnipeg in the regular season and gave up seven goals in Game 1 on Sunday. Jared Bednar stuck with his number one goaltender, and it paid off on Tuesday night. After Georgiev let in Scheifele’s redirected shot in the second period, he closed the door the rest of the way and finished with 28 saves to help his team even the series.

“We need some more zone time. Just too quick in a lot of our plays, getting shots blocked, they did a great job getting into the lanes,” said Kyle Connor.

“We need to move more up top and support each other.”