The Jets couldn’t score at all on Wednesday night, falling 1-0 in St. Louis against the Blues. Tonight, the Jets continued their 3 game pre-holiday break road trip against the 1st place team in the Central Division (and NHL): the Colorado Avalanche. Ball Arena was the host for tonight’s game, as the Jets looked to pull off an upset against the NHL league standings leaders. The now 15-16-2 Jets took on the 24-2-7 Avalanche, with both teams looking for the 2 points in this Central Division matchup.

There were a few small changes to the Jets lineup tonight, as they continue to slightly alter their line combinations. Tanner Pearson replaced Cole Koepke on the 4th line, playing alongside Jonathan Toews and Gustav Nyquist. One notable change on the defense pairings, as Haydn Fleury returned to the Jets lineup for the 1st time since getting a concussion. Logan Stanley, who now has 6 goals this season, had himself a 3rd different defense partner (Fleury), after Colin Miller and Luke Schenn were previously in Fleury’s spot.

Connor Hellebuyck got another start in goal, as Hellebuyck made his 4th consecutive start since returning from knee surgery ahead of schedule. With Haydn Fleury returning to the Jets lineup, the team is now fully healthy and injury free. Hellebuyck entered tonight’s game with a 9-7-1 record, a 2.36 GAA and an impressive .918 SV%. Tonight’s game started with the Avalanche jumping out to a 2-0 lead in the 1st, before the Jets battled back to make it a close game, but in the end the Avalanche would skate away with a one goal victory.

The 1st period started with both teams trading chances. Connor Hellebuyck and Scott Wedgewood have been among the best statistical goalies this season, and that showed early in tonight’s game. Just before the halfway point in the 1st, the Avalanche opened the scoring. Joel Kiviranta and Josh Manson set up Brent Burns at the point, and his wrist shot deflected off a Jets defender and went past Hellebuyck.

Just over a minute later, Gabriel Landeskog took the only penalty of the opening 20 minutes of play, a holding call on Josh Morrissey. The Jets were unsuccessful on their 1st powerplay of the night, and the game remained 1-0 in favour of the Avalanche.

Around two minutes after the teams were back on 5 on 5, the Avalanche doubled their lead. Artturi Lehkonen sent the Avalanche on a rush after a Jets chance in the Avalanche zone. Nathan MacKinnon started a partial 2 on 1 with Martin Necas, and MacKinnon sent a nice pass across to Necas who wristed one past Hellebuyck top shelf.

The Avalanche looked like the better team in the 1st period, and they took a deserving 2-0 lead into the break. Shots on goal after 20 minutes were 11-8 Avalanche. The Jets had some positives to take into the 2nd, but they would need to start generating more chances if they wanted to get back in this game.

Almost 3 minutes after the 2nd period started, Josh Manson threw a big hit on Cole Perfetti. The hit prompted a response from one of the Jets on the ice, and that was Tanner Pearson, who dropped the gloves with Manson in a spirited but rather quick fight. Less than a minute later, Mark Scheifele was called for holding, giving the Avalanche their 1st powerplay of the night. The Jets did well to stop the Avs from making it 3-0, and even got a decent chance shorthanded.

The game “slowed down” a bit after this powerplay, and the Avalanche managed to control and maintain their 2-0 lead. The Avalanche got another powerplay chance with around 7 minutes left in the 2nd after the Jets had too many men on the ice. Despite some struggles in recent games, the Jets penalty killers did well tonight, including during this important 2 minutes.

The rest of the 2nd almost went without any goals or penalties, before Cole Perfetti was called for tripping with 56 seconds left. After a chance from the Avalanche, Alex Iafallo sent a pass off the boards and down the ice. Morgan Barron raced up the ice and got by his defender, before picking up the puck near the faceoff dot and going to the backhand for a wonderful shorthanded goal.

That goal gave the Jets a much needed boost of energy and hope headed into the 3rd period. The Avalanche continued to hold on to their lead, but now it was just a one goal game. Shots on goal after the 2nd period were 22-15 Avalanche, as the Avalanche outshot the Jets 11-7 in the 2nd period.

The Avalanche struck early in the 3rd, regaining their 2 goal lead. After a puck battle was lost by the Jets, Valeri Nichushkin went up the ice and made a nice move to create some space. Nichushkin sent the puck back to Josh Manson, who fired a shot on goal. Parker Kelly was in front, and he deflected the puck past Hellebuyck to give the Avs a 3-1 lead.

Less than two minutes later, the Jets got a critical powerplay after Devon Toews was called for hooking on Gabriel Vilardi. Just 7 seconds later, the Jets made it a 3-2 game. Kyle Connor gave the puck back to the point for Gustav Nyquist. After seeing Scheifele in front, Nyquist fired a perfect slap pass in front to Scheifele, who deflected the puck past Wedgewood to get the Jets back in this game.

Scheifele’s 17th of the season once again got the Jets back to within one goal, with plenty of time remaining. The Avalanche almost made it a 4-2 game with around 10 minutes left, but the goal was immediately waved off for a high stick that deflected the puck in from in front of the net.

Teams continued to trade chances, and the Avalanche managed to hold on to their slim lead. The rest of the game was played at 5 on 5, before the Jets pulled the goalie with just under a minute left. One and a half minutes prior, the Avalanche managed to take around 30 seconds off the clock just from an extended scramble in the corner.

With 30 seconds left, the Jets took their timeout to reset and prepare for their final push. One final faceoff draw was won by the Jets with 7 seconds left, but they couldn’t get another shot on goal. The Jets battled hard tonight against an elite team, but a couple mistakes were enough to leave Colorado without the win. Final shots on goal were 26-22 for the Avalanche, who maintained their top spot in the NHL league standings.

The Jets will now conclude their 3 game road trip before their Holiday break begins, as their regular season schedule continues with a game against the Utah Mammoth on Sunday night. Puck drop for this game will be just after 6:00 pm CT. Stay tuned here at Jets Nation for all of the latest Jets news, plus previews and recaps on each Jets game this season.