Nichushkin has hat trick, Avalanche take Game 4 to push Jets to brink

DENVER -- Valeri Nichushkin scored his first NHL hat trick, and the Colorado Avalanche won 5-1 against the Winnipeg Jets in Game 4 of the Western Conference First Round at Ball Arena on Sunday.

The Avalanche lead the best-of-7 series 3-1. Game 5 is at Winnipeg on Tuesday (9:30 p.m. ET; , ESPN, ALT, CBC, TVAS, SNW).

Artturi Lehkonen and Cale Makar each had a goal and an assist, and Nathan MacKinnon had two assists for Avalanche, the No. 3 seed from the Central Division. Alexandar Georgiev made 26 saves.

“I’ve really liked all four games from our group,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “We made some mistakes in Game 1. We made less in Game 2. We made less in Game 3. We probably made less here tonight on the defensive side of things. But our compete level and the intensity that we’re playing with, the speed and pace we’re playing with, the commitment that the team has playing with, has been great in all four games.”

Nate Schmidt scored for the Jets, who are the No. 2 seed from the Central. Connor Hellebuyck allowed four goals on 30 shots before being replaced by Laurent Brossoit at the start of the third period. Brossoit made four saves.

“The problems are self-inflicted,” Winnipeg coach Rick Bowness said. “Wanna take penalties? Wanna play a three-quarter ice game? You're playing right into their hands. Our issues are self-inflicted. You saw us play the right way for 10 minutes in the second half of the first period. You take four penalties, you turn the puck over. That's exactly how they want to play. The issues are self-inflicted.

“First thing is you have to stay out of the penalty box, and then the penalty kill has to do their job. Second thing is we have to stop turning the puck over. Again, those things are self-inflicted. You want adjustments? Stay out of the box. Manage the puck better and go from there.”

Lehkonen scored to make it 1-0 Colorado when he one-timed Casey Mittelstadt’s backhand pass from behind the net at the right hash mark at 8:10 of the first period.

“If you really watch video and dissect video and look at how many plays that 'Lehky' makes on any given night, on the offensive side, on the defensive side, he doesn't get anywhere near enough credit for what he does for our team,” Bednar said. “And he's so valuable to our team in every aspect: power play penalty, kill 5-on-5, down goals, up goals, scores big goals. I mean, this guy is a relentless worker. This guy's a warrior.”

Schmidt tied it 1-1 at 13:56, skating into a pass from Mason Appleton above the right circle and scoring on a wrist shot top shelf far side. The Avalanche challenged for offside, but video review upheld the original call.

“There's clear differences in their game compared to the regular season. They're playing fast. Their [defensemen] are moving pucks. They're moving to areas quicker than we are,” said Jets forward Mark Scheifele. “It seems like it's almost like endless, over and over and over, and we're not able to get that puck stopped. We've got to find ways to change that.

“Obviously they're a fantastic team. They've shown that shift in and shift out. They battle hard. They make it hard to get to their net, and we've got to change our game a little bit.”

Nichushkin scored a power-play goal to make it 2-1 at 11:36 of the second period when he redirected Makar’s initial shot downward and through Hellebuyck.

“He's been awesome for us. Obviously, he's a train driving that front end right now,” said Makar. “So whether it's being in front of the net or just being in the corners, I think especially for us as a D-core, we want to reward guys that are going to the net. So [we] try and get pucks there for them or put it in their hands so they can make plays.”

Makar extended the lead to 3-1 at 15:03 with a wrist shot from above the right dot that went far side. He started the rush behind his own net and took it coast to coast before the shot.

“I think our forwards had pushed back their [defensemen] so much, and I think my first option I was looking at was kind of kicking that out to, I think, Mikko [Rantanen] on my right,” Makar said. “And then once I saw that [defense] backed off quite a bit, I just tried to throw it to the net and just get it far side.”

Nichushkin made it 4-1 with a power-play goal at 19:36, snapping the crossing pass from Lehkonen into the open net from atop the crease.

“He's a huge part of our squad. We all know what a great player he is, and it's hard to stop the big man,” said Lehkonen. “We started off well, got a good start. I felt like the first two periods, we played really great, and then in the third, I think it was a mature third period from us.”

Nichushkin scored into the empty net at 19:47 of the third period for the 5-1 final.

“He's available for you and rock solid in almost every area of the game as a 200-foot player,” said Bednar. “Players like that, you can't even describe what they bring to the team because it's like competitive, hard-working skill, and they can play with anybody.”

NOTES: Jets forward Vladislav Namestnikov left the game at 6:57 of the third period after Schmidt’s shot from the blue line hit him in the face. “‘Vladdy’ is at the hospital being looked at right now,” said Bowness. “That's all I have until we get a report from what they see, what is wrong.” … Nikolai Kovalenko was recalled from Colorado of the American Hockey League on Sunday and made his NHL debut. He finished with four hits in 7:17 of ice time. … Makar tied Sandis Ozolinsh (18) for the most postseason goals by a defenseman in Avalanche/Nordiques history.