It's not even halfway through the second period in the contest between the Colorado Avalanche and the Winnipeg Jets, and it's already 5-0 Jets. As the CBC commentators said, "the Avalanche are being taken to the woodshed." Five different Jets have scored so far.
Almost midway through the third period, and the Avalanche have registered just 11 shots on goal.
Well. It's over and the Jets have a 6-1 win. Two huge points that place the Jets just two points out of the second wild card spot as they creep up a bit to fourth in the Central division.
How'd you like my interspersed "live" updates?
The Jets owned the Avalanche from the opening face-off. It wasn't exactly a clinic, as the Jets weren't there to teach the Avs anything, but there was hickory-switchin' going on, that's for sure.
Patrik Laine opened the scoring with his 32nd with a blast from the slot that was deflected in by an Avalanche defender, putting him ahead of Austen Matthews for the rookie goal-scoring lead, while climbing to second in the overall NHL lead, behind only Sidney Crosby with 34. The Calder and the Rocket Richard trophies? Okay!
Blake Wheeler joined the 20-goal club as he notched a nice top-corner snipe on the power-play, while Mark Schiefele got his 27th on a nice feed from Laine just 15 seconds after Wheeler scored. Ehlers got his 21st from Wheeler on a nice give and go.
The Jets now have four skaters with 20 or more goals.
Ben Chariot got his very due first of the season (how many of his blasts from the point have been deflected in by someone else, I'll never know) and Jacob Trouba rounded things out by scoring his 6th when he got his own rebound off the end glass.
The win puts the Jets back at .500 for the first time in a while. I also noticed that their goal differential has dropped dramatically as well to a -8.
Connor Hellebuyck was just fifteen seconds from a shut-out. A shot from the line in the dying seconds by Gabriel Landeskog dropped on Helle in front and caught him going the other way. So not fair. He played very well, although it was the Jets defense that once again has stymied the opposition, Helle earned shutouts back-to-back.
One of the weirdest plays of the year was displayed last night, as the Avs Blake Comeau was in all alone on Hellebuyck, when he, for some odd reason, tried to pass it back to Nathan MacKinnon only to be intercepted and cleared by a back-checking Patrik Laine.
Good win. Let's hope a miracle happens and the Jets keep winning, while the Kings, Blues and Stars all keep losing. Yeah. All three of those teams will falter, and the Jets will go on a winning streak. Meh. Sure. Why Not?
