The Afterburners: Jets Hand it (?) to Colorado, 4-1

The Jets played the big spoilers to a surging Avalanche squad last night, thanks to a couple of goals from Evander Kane and a studly performance from Ondrej Pavelec. Steam Punk (Tim Stapleton) also chipped in with a solid PP goal and an assist on Kane's second goal. Given the lopsided score, one would suppose that a Colorado team that had gone 6-3 in its last 9 games simply ran into a better team last night at the Pepsi Center. Hell, we'd like to suppose that's the case.

Unfortunately, we have a couple of things that suggest that wasn't the case...

1st Period: 16:37 Winnipeg ES Goal, Evander Kane 16 (Blake Wheeler 21, Alexander Burmistrov 9)

2nd Period: 1:21 Winnipeg PP Goal, Tim Stapleton 5 (Andrew Ladd 6, Tobias Enstrom 8); 14:52 Winnipeg ES Goal, Evander Kane 17 (Chris Thorburn 3, Tim Stapleton 6)

3rd Period: 3:41 Winnipeg ES Goal, Jim Slater 7 (Tanner Glass 8); 14:48 Colorado ES Goal, Kevin Porter 2 (David Van der Gulik 4, Cody McLeod 2)

Shots: Winnipeg 26, Colorado 33

Powerplays & Penalty Kills

1st Period: None

2nd Period: 0:40 - 1:21 5v4 PP (PP goal)

3rd Period: 0:29 - 2:29 4v5 PK (full time)

Thoughts

• As you can see, we did not play a strong game at evens, regardless of the final outcome. Pavelec really made the difference in this game.
• To his credit, Jean-Sebastien Giguere played a pretty solid game; the goals against him were tough to do much about (2-on-1, PP, and fluky bounce/pass) save the AC Slater (Jim Slater) goal. Giggy made some big saves on breakaways and odd-man rushes in the game and on another night might've gotten at least a point out of it for Colorado.
• Kane's first goal was the epitome of why he can be a star in this league, as he unleashed a laser to beat Giguere in the 1st.
• You'd like to see Pavs get out of this with a shutout, but you have to admit that was a gorgeous play by the Avs forwards.
• Gotta love the effort on the Slater goal. He really went balls-out on that one. Unfortunately, it appeared that those balls where then hit.
• It's great to have Toby back and doing what he does best: getting powerplay assists. It was exactly what you want to see him do, take the shot low where it can generate a rebound or get tipped, and sure enough the dogs hopped on it and Steam Punk lit the lamp.
• A couple of scraps last night, as McLeod went after Stuart because Mark Stuart executed a solid, legal check on him (the nerve). Shane O'Brien's scrum was probably more justified, as Glass threw himself recklessly at one of the Avs defenceman; for Glass's sins, he was pummeled.
• Well okay, we didn't do great, but we got the win, so let's just be thankful and enjoy the points boost. Time to get ready for another home game on Friday, this time versus the Kings.