The Winnipeg Jets said this year would be different.
But for the second straight season the Jets won Game 1, only to lose four in a row to make an early exit from the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The Jets’ season came to a close Tuesday night with a 6-3 home loss to the Colorado Avalanche as they were the fourth team to get eliminated.
Winnipeg has now lost 12 of 14 playoff games since sweeping Edmonton in the first round in 2021. The Jets have also lost six straight elimination games going back to the 2018 playoffs.
“In the two years that’s by far the best playoff game we’ve played,” said head coach Rick Bowness. “It didn’t go our way tonight. A couple goals went in off of us. We had some chances. We didn’t score, but where was that in the first four games, that’s a question we’re going to have to answer ourselves over the course of the summer.”
While the Jets went out with a whimper last year, this time they outshot the Avs 36-32 and played arguably their best game of the series with their season on the line, but it still wasn’t enough.
“I thought we played pretty well tonight, honestly,” said Jets captain Adam Lowry. “I think the difference is our line gives up three against the (Nathan) MacKinnon line. Disappointing, a disappointing way to end the year. I think everyone in this room is really just upset with kinda, I think our level of play in the series.”
“There’s no moral victories,” Bowness said. “There’s growth. You got to grow. And we took a lot of strides as a group this year. We grew a lot. We did.”
The Jets were outscored 24-8 since the third period of Game 1.
“We were a desperate team,” said Josh Morrissey. “We didn’t get to our game soon enough in the series.
“Obviously, we lose out in the first round, it’s disappointing. You work all year to give yourself an opportunity. We had a great regular season, and out in five, it’s pretty disappointing.”
The Jets, who were the league’s best defensive team in the regular season, became the first team in NHL history to allow five or more goals in each of their first five games to start the playoffs.
“They’ve won a Stanley Cup and it showed itself this series,” Bowness said. “They raised their battle level more than anything.”
“We have to be better,” said Morrissey. “We have to find another gear as individuals and it’s impossible for that to set in right now, but we need to take the lessons from what they did out there because they were the better hockey team and we need to find a way to get to that level.”
And after having such a great regular season, this one hurts a little more for the Jets.
“It’s going to be a long summer,” Lowry said. “A disappointing one. This one is going to sting for a while.”
The Jets were gift-wrapped a lead just 1:15 into the game. After a brief scramble at the side of the net, the puck squirted free in the crease in front of an open net. Josh Manson tried to clear it to safety but shot it right into Artturi Lehkonen a few feet away, sending the puck back into the net.
Kyle Connor was a part of the initial scramble and was given credit for his third goal of the playoffs.
Colorado responded quickly, leveling the score just over two minutes later. After gaining the zone fairly easily, the Avs’ top line went to work with some crisp passing. Mikko Rantanen found Devon Toews coming into the zone late and as he skated up the ice, he sent a great cross-ice feed to Valeri Nichushkin who blasted it home to make it 1-1 with his seventh goal of the series.
Colorado held a 13-7 edge in shots on goal through 20 minutes but the game remained tied 1-1 until the fourth line came through for the Avalanche at the 5:42 mark of the second.
A shot from the point was steered aside by Connor Hellebuyck and the puck trickled behind the net. Neal Pionk was caught flat-flooted and couldn’t reach it before Yakov Trenin got to the puck, stepped in front of the net and roofed it past Hellebuyck to give Colorado the lead.
It didn’t last long. Miles Wood was called for holding less than a minute after Trenin’s goal and the Jets made him pay when Morrissey’s shot from the point went off the post and in to make it 2-2 at the 6:48 mark of the second.
Colorado regained the lead with 6:15 left in the second thanks to an own goal off the stick of Pionk. A shot from Lehkonen glanced off the stick of Mark Scheifele as he released it, sending it sideways towards the corner. Pionk tried to corral the puck but it had too much velocity so after hitting the blade of Pionk’s stick, the puck slid into the open net to make it 3-2 for the Avalanche.
According to the NHL, with Lehkonen and Nichushkin each scoring in every game of the series, it’s the first time ever that two players on the same team have done that at the same time over the first five games of a postseason.
Winnipeg managed to outshoot Colorado 19-11 in the second but the visitors carried the one-goal lead into the third as they looked to finish off the series.
Just over two minutes into the third, the Jets drew level when Tyler Toffoli took a drop pass from Nikolaj Ehlers and beat Alexandar Georgiev from distance with a hard shot under the blocker.
The building was rocking, though not for long as Colorado regained the lead just 2:05 after Toffoli’s goal.
Rantanen got on the board with his first of the series when he redirected a point shot from Toews past Hellebuyck, and he didn’t have to wait long to score his second of the playoffs.
3:50 after making it 4-3, Rantanen and Nathan MacKinnon were sprung on a 2-on-1. MacKinnon sent a tape-to-tape pass across the ice that Rantanen buried past a sprawling Hellebuyck to make it 5-3 with 11:59 to go.
Winnipeg pulled Hellebuyck with two minutes to go as they tried to muster a last-ditch comeback effort but they couldn’t find the back of the net as fans flooded for the exits before the final horn sounded.
Josh Manson added an empty-netter with two seconds left.
Hellebuyck, the likely Vezina winner, got saddled with the loss after stopping 26 shots.
The Jets are now 10-23 in playoff games (including the four-game loss to Calgary in the bubble) since beating Nashville in 2018.
Colorado advances to face the winner of the series between Dallas and Vegas.
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