WINNIPEG, Manitoba — — Captain Adam Lowry and Kyle Connor every scored twice to propel the Winnipeg Jets to a 7-6 victory over the Colorado Avalanche on Sunday in Sport 1 of their first-round playoff collection.
“He loves these challenges,” Jets coach Rick Bowness mentioned of Lowry. “He’s going up in opposition to probably the greatest gamers on the earth, not essentially the league, however the world in Nate (Nathan MacKinnon). So, he loves these challenges and he takes his sport to a different stage.”
MacKinnon, who had a purpose and one help, was second in league scoring with 140 factors in the course of the common season.
“That’s our captain, man. He’s a gamer,” Jets defenseman Brenden Dillon mentioned of Lowry. “The physicality, he performs in opposition to the highest guys each evening. Typically when it looks like our group doesn’t have it, he’s in a position to pull us into the combat.”
Mark Scheifele had a purpose and two assists and Josh Morrissey registered a purpose and help. Vladislav Namestnikov additionally scored. Brenden Dillon, Gabriel Vilardi and Nino Niederreiter every added a pair of assists and Connor picked up one helper.
There have been 100 hits within the sport, with the Avalanche having a 54-46 edge.
Connor Hellebuyck made 40 saves for the Jets, who’re on a nine-game win streak.
Cale Makar had a purpose and two assists for Colorado. Artturi Lehkonen notched a purpose and one help. Valeri Nichushkin, Miles Wooden and Casey Mittelstadt additionally scored. Mikko Rantanen chipped in with two helpers.
“Sadly, all of the errors that we made ended up behind our internet,” Makar mentioned. “That’s simply the way in which she goes typically. A pair issues to wash up after which flip the web page.”
Alexandar Georgiev stopped 16 of the 23 photographs he confronted for Colorado, which is attempting to repeat its 2022 Stanley Cup-championship run. He was backed up by Arvid Holm as a substitute of Justus Annunen, who wasn’t on the morning skate.
It was the primary time the 2 groups have met within the NHL playoffs.
The Avalanche got here into the collection having misplaced all three regular-season video games in opposition to Winnipeg.
“We performed extraordinarily onerous,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar mentioned. “We did a whole lot of good issues. You don’t get six (targets) on the Jets with out doing that.
“We additionally made some errors that they capitalized on. Too many, clearly tonight, and it finally ends up costing us the hockey sport.”
The primary interval led to a 3-3 tie, together with the groups combining to attain three targets in 66 seconds.
“It’s not the way in which we drew it up, a 7-6 sport, however typically you’ve simply bought to play that sport that’s in entrance of you,” Connor mentioned. “It became a little bit of a monitor meet there and we all know we’ve bought to be higher.”
The groups then mixed for 4 targets in slightly below 4 minutes.
Lowry bought the one purpose of the second interval.
Lowry’s second purpose of the sport needed to be reviewed because the puck hit one put up, went throughout and hit the opposite put up after which slid alongside the purpose line and hit the put up once more earlier than bouncing out. It counted as crossing the road at 3:31.
Mark Scheifele’s first-period purpose was his twentieth profession playoff purpose, scored in his thirty eighth sport.
Solely three lively gamers have reached that mark in fewer video games. Alex Ovechkin did it in 26 video games, Jake Guentzel in 32 and Connor McDavid in 36 video games.
UP NEXT
Sport 2 is Tuesday in Winnipeg.
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AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://www.apnews.com/hub/NHL
