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 For the sixth time this season, the Jets skated on to the ice riding
a two-game winning streak and for the sixth time, their winning
streak ended with a thud.
Monday night, the thud was provided by the Colorado Avalanche, who
gave themselves a little breathing room in the Western Conference
wild-card race with a 2-1 victory.
With the win, the Avs improved to 23-21-3 and 49 points while the
Jets fell to 21-22-3 and 45 points.
The Jets made it interesting -- ever so briefly -- when right winger
Joel Armia snapped his second goal of the season past Avs goalie
Semyon Varlamov to break the shutout with 41 seconds left in the
game.
But it was too little too late as the Avs killed off the final
seconds without incident for the victory.
The Avs also made up ground on the idle Minnesota Wild, who sit in
the first wild-card position with 52 points, with their 10th victory
over the Central division this season.
"It's an important win because we aren't doing so well against teams
in the east for some reason," said Avalanche coach Patrick Roy.
"Four-point games have been good for us so far this year. I thought
we were really strong for at least 50 minutes."
Perhaps no statistic was more important for Colorado than blocked
shots. The Jets had 37 shots on Varlamov but on 21 other occasions,
an Avs player threw himself in front of the puck. (Well, the Jets
also had shooting into opponents' knee pads down pat, too.)
The Jets, meanwhile, prevented just eight shots from getting through
to goalie Connor Hellebuyck.
"They did a good job blocking shots," said Jets center Mathieu
Perreault. "Sometimes, you're kind of holding on for a split second
and they get in that lane. I think I had a lot of shots blocked
tonight, so I've got to maybe work on that a little bit. Get my shot
off a little quicker so they don't have time to get in the lane."
A little bit of history was made Monday night as Avs right winger
Jarome Iginla ripped home his 13th goal of the season on the power
play and 602nd of his career, giving him sole possession of 18th on
the NHL's all-time goal-scoring list, breaking a tie with Jari
Kurri.
"They all feel good. To get a goal at the end of the second period
was big for the power play. In the third, we did what we had to do
and were able to hold them off," he said.
It's the third victory in as many games for the Avs versus the Jets
but Iginla said he doesn't believe his team has the Jets' number.
"There isn't one reason I can come up with for that. Every time we
play them we have a lot of respect for them. It's a good divisional
battle. It was a playoff-style game with the implications in the
standings. There is still lots of time left but these four-point
games are really big," he said.
The fact that the Jets were missing three regulars due to injury,
right winger Drew Stafford and centers Mark Scheifele and Adam
Lowry, didn't play into the Avs' thinking, he said.
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"From our point of view, teams go through that. We're missing EJ
(Erik Johnson), one of our top defenseman. It's part of the game
and, to be honest, you don't really look at the other team's lineup.
We have our own issues," he said.
Iginla was quick to give credit to center Carl Soderberg, who found
his winger alone to Hellebuyck's right in the dying seconds of the
second period, where he snapped home the game winner on the blocker
side.
The 30-year-old Swede practically blushed when the beauty of his
pass was described to him in the dressing room.
"Thanks. It's a set play, for sure. You have to mix it up a bit
sometimes. Today, he was open there," he said.
Hellebuyck said he read the play as best he could but he couldn't
cover the right side of his net in time.
"It's hard to get across the crease when a guy's tight like that.
That's what a power play is for. I thought we did play a good game.
I thought we had everyone going and sometimes the bounces don't go
your way," he said.
The visitors opened the scoring at 1:16 of the second period on a
delayed penalty to Jets defenseman Toby Enstrom when Soderberg
banged home a rebound for his ninth of the season.
The Jets outshot the Avalanche 37-34.
NOTES: The Jets are experiencing their first real bout of the injury
bug with C Adam Lowry (upper body) and RW Drew Stafford (upper body)
joining C Mark Scheifele (lower body) on the injured list. ... The
Jets played their 21st home game this season, the fewest in the
league. ... With Avalanche RW Jarome Iginla up to No. 18 on the
all-time goals list with 602, his next target is long-time Minnesota
North Star Dino Ciccarelli at 608 ... The history of both teams was
represented in the MTS Centre, as there were a smattering of Quebec
Nordiques and Atlanta Thrashers jerseys in the crowd. ... In the
press box for the Jets were D Adam Pardy, D Paul Postma and C
Patrice Cormier. Joining them from the Avalanche were D Nate Guenin,
C Mikhail Grigorenko and D Andrew Bodnarchuk.
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