Avalanche score seven in win against Jets

DENVER-- Seven forwards scored for the Colorado Avalanche in a 7-1 win against the Winnipeg Jets at Pepsi Center on Wednesday.

Tyson Jost and Carl Soderberg each had a goal and two assists, A.J. Greer scored his first NHL goal, and Semyon Varlamov made 26 saves for Colorado (25-24-11), which hold the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference. The Avalanche are tied with the Chicago Blackhawks in points with 61.
"It feels good. It's nice to be back in the winning column," Jost said. "We're putting up wins now, we're getting more consistent. That feels better than any individual thing right now. It's fun when we're putting wins together, so we have to keep that going."
WATCH: [All Jets vs. Avalanche highlights]
Colorado has won consecutive games for the first time since it won six straight from Nov. 18-28.
"It's taken way too long to get that," Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog said. "You have to be able to string a few together. We know it's been tough up to this point the last couple months, but we're looking ahead and I like what I've seen from our group lately. We're trending in the right direction. If we continue to bring this effort, we'll see a lot more wins."

Kyle Connor scored, and Connor Hellebuyck made 39 saves for Winnipeg (36-20-4), which has lost three games in a row and is 2-4-2 in its past eight. The Jets lead the Nashville Predators by one point for first place in the Central Division.
"We were terrible," Jets forward Adam Lowry said. "Unacceptable. I'm surprised. I knew they'd be hungry, they're fighting for a playoff spot. I guess we're fat and comfortable where we're at because the effort wasn't there, top to bottom."
Soderberg gave the Avalanche a 1-0 lead at 3:39 of the second period, scoring on a rebound off Jost's initial shot from the left circle.
Mikko Rantanen made it 2-0 at 11:21, scoring from the right hash marks into an open net after receiving a pass from Matt Nieto following a scramble in front.
Nathan MacKinnon scored 59 seconds into the third period with a one-timer on a power play to make it 3-0. It was Colorado's first goal in 30 chances with the man advantage.

"We had a good night (on the power play)," MacKinnon said. "We were snapping it pretty good. I think we scored another one when it was expiring. It's been better. We mixed up the units, we finally put them back together near the end of the game and it felt good."
Matt Calvert jammed in a loose puck in the crease 11 seconds later to extend the lead to 4-0.
Connor cut it to 4-1 with a power-play goal at 1:57, redirecting Blake Wheeler's pass in front. The goal was Winnipeg's first in 22 chances with the man advantage.
Jost collected a loose puck low in the left circle to make it 5-1 at 5:12.
Landeskog made it 6-1 at 17:41, driving to the net and converting a pass from Jost on a 2-on-1, and Greer made it 7-1 from in front at 19:26.

"We've got to watch this game and look at where our game needs to improve," Lowry said. "There's a lot of areas. Our penalty kill needs to get better still, our pace, our compete. We got to start moving our feet again. There are so many areas of our game that we've kind of just let go. When we're a slow team, we're an easy team to play against."

They said it

"It looked like we kind of gave up, so that's disappointing. Even the years we didn't make the playoffs, we had teams that competed, that never gave up even when we were out of the playoffs and there was nothing to play for. We had a group that played hard. We didn't do that tonight. We left our goalie out to dry again and that is a reflection of leadership. It is a good time for an awakening and I think our team needs it." -- Jets captain Blake Wheeler
"We're getting different contributions from different lines, different players are stepping up. I liked the balance of our lines again tonight. Every time I draw up the lineup that's what I'm hoping for. The last couple games have been really good." -- Avalanche coach Jared Bednar

Need to know

MacKinnon is the first Avalanche player to score at least 30 goals in consecutive seasons since Joe Sakic did it in three straight from 2003-04 to 2006-07. … It is the second time Colorado has had two 30-goal scorers (MacKinnon and Landeskog) in its first 60 games (2000-01, Sakic and Milan Hejduk). … Varlamov has a .943 save percentage in his past six starts. … Jets forward Patrik Laine has gone 15 games without a goal.

What's next

Jets:At the Vegas Golden Knights on Friday (10 p.m. ET; ESPN+, ATTSN-RM, TSN3, NHL.TV)
Avalanche:At the Chicago Blackhawks on Friday (7:30 p.m. ET; ESPN+, SN1, SNE, SNO, SNP, TVAS, NBCSCH, ALT2, NHL.TV)