Jets score 7, shut out Avalanche in playoff preview

DENVER -- Connor Hellebuyck made 30 saves, and the Winnipeg Jets took sole possession of second place in the Central Division by defeating the Colorado Avalanche 7-0 at Ball Arena on Saturday.

The shutout was Hellebuyck’s fifth of the season 37th of his NHL career.

"We have the best goalie in the League,” Jets defenseman Neal Pionk said. "It gives us a ton of confidence, let’s you play freely, make some plays. And like I said, when we play these good teams, they're going to make some plays no matter what we do. We could play a perfect game and still give up a few scoring chances, and that's where the goalie helps us out.”

Sean Monahan had two goals and an assist, Josh Morrissey had a goal and two assists, and Adam Lowry scored twice and for the Jets (50-24-6), who have won six straight. Kyle Connor, Nikolaj Ehlers and David Gustafsson each had two assists.

Winnipeg and Colorado will meet in the Western Conference First Round.

“That’s not their best game,” Jets coach Rick Bowness said of the Avalanche. “We know we’re going to see a lot better than that. I know their goalies had a tough night. We’re happy with what we did knowing it’s not going to look like that when the playoffs start.

“We know they’re a lot better than that. They’re a great hockey team over there. They are. They have elite players, the coaches have got them playing hockey. Today, that’s not their hockey team. We know they’re a great hockey team, and we know it’s going to be a tough series.”

Winnipeg is two points ahead of Colorado for second in the Central, and home-ice advantage in the first round, with two regular-season games remaining for each. The Dallas Stars clinched the division with a 3-1 win against the Seattle Kraken on Saturday.

“For us, starting at home, it would be awesome playing in front of the fans. We’ve worked so hard to put it in our control,” Lowry said. “That’s nice, but whether we start at home or on the road, we’re a real confident group. We like our team, we like our depth, we like how we can match up players at home or on the road. We'll try to take care of that in the next couple of games, but regardless of that we’re just focusing on being ready for Game 1.”

Alexandar Georgiev allowed four goals on 15 shots for the Avalanche (49-25-6) before being replaced late in the first period by Justus Annunen. Annunen made eight saves for Colorado, which has lost four of seven.

“We're going to have to remember it,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “We're going to have to learn from it, study it, and understand it, because we're going to have to be a lot better than that. That's two out of our last three games were like that. It's a huge game, right, and that's the way we came out in the first period …

“This is a really good team, but it doesn't change the fact that you’ve got to be ready to start. Can't wade into hockey games.”

Monahan put Winnipeg ahead 1-0 at 5:59 of the first period, hammering home Ehlers’ backdoor pass. Ehlers had taken the puck around the back of the net before passing across the crease to the left post.

Gabriel Vilardi extended the lead to 2-0 with a power-play goal from the left post at 8:02. He dropped to one knee and one-timed Connor’s pass from low in the right face-off circle.

“Our first period, we did a really good job of staying on top of them, forcing turnovers, and our power play got two huge goals for us,” Lowry said. “They have some of the best players in the world, a lot of speed coming through the middle.”

Morrissey scored a power-play goal to make it 3-0 at 15:07, scoring with a slap shot from the blue line.

Lowry made it 4-0 at 15:17, chasing Georgiev. He tucked a rebound past the goalie's leg from the top of the crease.

“I think we're too late in the season here to kind of brush things off and say they had it and we didn't,” Colorado forward Andrew Cogliano said. “I don't know. It's disappointing. The bottom line is, you get behind on a team like that, it's going to be really hard to come back. So that's just the nature of the beast where we're at with a team like that. They checked hard, we didn’t.

“They got all their offense from mistakes we made, which were a lot of mental mistakes, a lot of bad reads, a lot of things that we just haven't done in a long time. And you faced a team that checked hard and we didn't, and when you give teams, good opportunistic teams like that, 2-on-1s and breakaways, eventually they're going to go in. So we left our goalies out to dry a lot."

Tyler Toffoli extended it to 5-0 at 10:19 of the second period when he finished a 2-on-1 off a pass from Connor, scoring with wrist shot that went past the glove.

Monahan’s second goal of the game pushed it to 6-0 at 15:11 when he scored with a wrist shot from the left hash marks, and Lowry scored through the five-hole for his second of the game at 16:33 for the 7-0 final.

Lowry had gone 17 games without a goal since March 8.

“I was ice cold, so it’s nice to heat up a little bit,” he said. “It was nice to see the first one go in, and the second one was a bonus. Guys joke that I’m addicted to [shooting five-hole]. It was one of those things that I saw and tried to take advantage of.”

NOTES: Avalanche defenseman Samuel Girard left the game in the first period following a collision with teammate Ross Colton and is in concussion protocol, Bednar said. … Colorado center Nathan MacKinnon had four shots on goal to give him 400, making him the 10th player in NHL history to have that many in a season. … Georgiev is scheduled to start at the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday. … Colorado forward Mikko Rantanen had two shots and was minus-3 in 16:11 of ice time after missing the previous two games while in concussion protocol. … Bowness coached his 800th NHL game he is 307-408-37 with 48 ties. … Morrissey and Lowry scored 10 seconds apart, tying for the second-fastest two goals in Jets/Atlanta Thrashers history. Ron Hainsey and Chris Thorburn scored the fastest seven seconds apart for the Thrashers in a 5-4 loss at the Montreal Canadiens on Dec. 2, 2008. … Ehlers reached 255 assists, passing Toby Enstrom (254) for the seventh-most in franchise history.