Avalanche defeat Jets, keep pace in Central race

DENVER --Mikko Rantanen scored his 55th goal of the season, and the Colorado Avalanche kept pace in the Central Division with a 4-2 win against the Winnipeg Jets at Ball Arena on Thursday.

Colorado trails the Dallas Stars, who defeated the St. Louis Blues 1-0 on Thursday, by one point for first in the Central but can win the division with a victory at the Nashville Predators tomorrow night.
"We got to win to win the division, and that's what we want to do," Rantanen said. "So it's kind of a must win for us."

Evan Rodrigues and Artturi Lehkonen each had a goal and an assist, and Lars Eller had two assists for the Avalanche (50-24-7), who are 6-0-1 in their past seven games. Alexandar Georgiev made 18 saves.
"All year, when you're the defending champ, every team measures themselves against you. So every team is hungry to beat you because you're the standard," Eller said. "I think it makes it harder in a lot of ways in the regular season because every team wants to beat you more than anyone probably. But I feel like the hunger is here to win."
Axel Jonsson-Fjallby and Kevin Stenlund scored, and David Rittich made 21 saves for the Jets (46-33-3), who finished the regular season as the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference.
"We played really well. We didn't give up much at all. They didn't have anything going," Winnipeg coach Rick Bowness said. "It was disappointing to lose on that third goal, but that's hockey. Our guys played very hard tonight. We did a lot of good things. That's an excellent hockey team over there, obviously playing for first place, so they had a lot at stake. We battled them every minute of the game."

Denis Malgin gave the Avalanche a 1-0 lead at 13:33 of the first period, knocking in a rebound past the sprawling glove of Rittich.
Jonsson-Fjallby tied it 1-1 at 2:15 of the second period with a backhand near the right post after Neal Pionk's initial shot hit off him in front.
Stenlund put the Jets in front 2-1 at 14:59 with a short-handed goal, one-timing a pass from Morgan Barron on a 2-on-1.
"That's a credit to the guys in the lineup tonight. Everybody really battled," Jets defenseman Brenden Dillon said. "We want to [have] a workmanlike mentality here going into the playoffs. We've got a lot of skill in our lineup, but we know when we work hard we're usually rewarded for it."
Rantanen tied it 2-2 during the same power play at 16:11, scoring on his own one-timer from the right circle off a cross-ice pass from Rodrigues.
"The goal today, it's off his front foot and he still gets a hard one-timer off that goes back bar in," Rodrigues said. "Just an elite goal-scorer."

Rodrigues then gave the Avalanche a 3-2 lead at 3:01 of the third period, beating Rittich blocker side with a wrist shot through the legs of Dillon from just inside the blue line.
"I was just trying to put it to the net. Wasn't even looking at the net," Rodrigues said. "The guy was in front of me. I just tried to shoot it through his legs and catch the goalie off guard, and it worked out."
Lehkonen scored into an empty net at 18:31 for the 4-2 final.
Avalanche forward Andrew Cogliano left the game in the first period with an upper-body injury. Malgin left in the third period with an undisclosed injury.
"Cogliano is out, upper body. No timetable yet. Malgin [will] probably miss tomorrow, too. No timetable," Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. "Every time someone gets hurt, there's concern that it could be serious or longer than what it takes, but we just have to keep moving on, moving forward. Hopefully we'll get good information over the next couple of days on both of them."
NOTES:Rantanen's 55 goals are tied for third in Avalanche/Quebec Nordiques history. Michel Goulet, who scored 55 goals with the Nordiques in 1984-85, also scored 56 in 1983-84, and 57 in 1982-83. … Colorado won at least 50 games in back-to-back seasons for the first time in its history. … Lehkonen returned to the lineup after missing 15 games because of a broken finger. … Rittich was making his first start since March 14. ... Prior to the game, it was announced that Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog, who has not played this season because of knee surgery, would not return for the playoffs.