After a dominating victory by the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday, everyone thought that the game against the Winnipeg Jets would be an easy one. Colorado had not scored a goal against Winnipeg in their building since December 2023. So, the expectations were not very high; score and win. The Avs had trouble with their puck control, which led to struggles in the last half of the game. What should have been an easy win against a struggling team turned into a game in which the Avs beat themselves.

View from the Mountaintop

The Avalanche began the game with impressive play. They were shutting down the Jets in the neutral zone and limiting their chances overall. The Avalanche limited Winnipeg to only one scoring chance throughout the entire first period. The Avs had three scoring chances. Three chances were high-danger for them. Colorado even limited the Jets to no shots on goal during a Brock Nelson penalty.

Colorado played the exact opposite game throughout the second period. Winnipeg owned puck possession and dominated the scoring chances. The Jets adjusted their game, so they were crashing the net while the Avs were having trouble doing anything in front. Colorado also got cute with the puck in the Winnipeg zone. Nathan MacKinnon tried doing a no-look drop pass on the blue line, but no one was there to take the pass. Mark Scheifele took off the other way with a simple pass to Kyle Connor for the finish.


Almost 10 minutes later, Alex Iafallo cleaned up a rebound in front of Mackenzie Blackwood with no pressure from the Avs defense.

Throughout the third, the Avs struggled with puck control and secondary chances on net. The rebound control for the Avs was a recurring theme the entire game, costing them several shots on an open net. Gabriel Landeskog and Artturi Lehkonen fill the role of rebound control, and their absence showed on Saturday.

MacKinnon was limited to one shot on net the entire game, so the Avs needed to spread out the offense. Valeri Nichushkin ended the game with seven shots, but never connected to the back of the net. Colorado only found the back of the net once, with 1:16 left, as MacKinnon sent a cross-slot pass to Martin Necas. It was too little, too late, as the Jets took the game 3–1.

Up Next

The Avalanche will head back home to to take on the Pittsburgh Penguins on Monday at 7:30 p.m. MT. ESPN will broadcast the game.