Scheifele and Ehlers score twice, but Jets comeback falls short in OT

WINNIPEG - The final score didn't do much for the Winnipeg Jets in the standings, but the performance in the third period against the Colorado Avalanche on Friday night showed that the Jets still have plenty of fight in them.
Trailing 4-2 late in the third against the Western Conference leading Avalanche, Mark Scheifele notched his second of the game with 3:35 to go to make it a one-goal contest.
Then, Josh Morrissey kicked away a Nathan MacKinnon attempt at the empty net to keep the comeback alive.
Good thing he did, because Nikolaj Ehlers potted his second of the contest with 16 seconds remaining in regulation to send the game to overtime.
Colorado's Cale Makar spoiled the party with the game-winner 2:42 into the extra frame. It came with just three seconds left on an Ehlers slashing penalty.
Even with one point out of a possible two, the Jets showed themselves - and the fans inside Canada Life Centre - they're not giving up.

"We talked about it after the second period," said Morrissey. "Obviously, we are not happy with where we are, but at the same time, it's what team do we want to be, what type of group do we want to be in there and what kind of fight do we want to show each other and just have no quit."
Ehlers and Scheifele both finished with two goals and an assist, leading the offensive charge for the Jets (33-28-11).
"We tried to use our speed as much as possible," said Ehlers. "Obviously, you can't be too happy when you lose a game but we're trying to grow our chemistry as a line every single day."
Colorado's Nicolas Aube-Kubel opened the scoring 5:10 into the game when his pass from the right corner to the front of the net took a bounce of Brenden Dillon's foot and past Connor Hellebuyck.
The Jets responded quickly. First, they killed off a Morrissey interference penalty, then shortly after the defenceman hopped back on the ice, Winnipeg had a two-on-one rush toward the Colorado net. Ehlers threaded a perfect pass to Scheifele - who made no mistake on his 28th of the season.

The assist extended Ehlers' point streak to five games.
"I think that in the last couple of games we've had some really big chances that just haven't gone in and today they did," said Ehlers. "That's great but it still wasn't enough."
Scheifele and Ehlers connected again with 2:25 left in the opening period to give the Jets a 2-1 lead. This time, Scheifele picked off a breakout pass from Bowen Byram high in the Colorado zone, then quickly sent it to the slot where Ehlers was alone. The first shot was stopped by Pavel Francouz, but Ehlers poked home the rebound for his 23rd of the season.
"I really liked our game, from start to finish," said Jets interim head coach Dave Lowry. "We showed lots of resiliency, we showed lots of compete, we showed lots of composure and I thought that we deserved better."

Colorado got back on even footing 3:55 into the second when Andre Burakovsky used Dylan DeMelo as a screen and rifled a wrist shot under Hellebuyck's left arm. Burakovsky's 20th of the season marked a new career-high and the first time in his career he's hit the 20-goal plateau.
Nathan MacKinnon increased that lead 4:04 into the third, as he collected a loose puck out of the sight of DeMelo and tucked it past Hellebuyck for a 4-2 Colorado lead. It was his 25th goal of the season and 75th point in just his 55th game.
That's when the conversation between the second and third periods helped push the Jets forward.
Winnipeg outshot Colorado 16-5 in the final period, and their persistence paid off.

First, Scheifele gathered a head of steam in the neutral zone, made a quick move to space in the right circle and snapped home his 29th of the season - and 19th in the past 28 games - to make the score 4-3 with under four minutes left.
"I saw two guys who were moving," Lowry said of Scheifele and Ehlers' performance. "Nikky's speed backed them off, Mark's speed backed them off. When you have players with that skill that are playing at that pace, it's no different than the Colorado guys. When they're attacking at full speed, it backs you off."
In the final minute, one of those "Colorado guys" - MacKinnon - was staring down an empty net with only Morrissey to beat.
"I didn't play a whole lot of goalie in road hockey but more like mini-sticks back in the day," Morrissey said. "Kick the foot out. I'll tell (goaltending coach Wade Flaherty) that we should work on that with the goalies. Kick save."

At the other end of the ice, Morrissey's blast into traffic was corralled by Ehlers, who buried the tying goal and 24th of the season.
"They were pressuring us pretty well there and we ended up making some good plays and you know at that point you've just got to shoot everything," said Ehlers. "And with the traffic that we had in the front of the net, I was lucky enough to get that bounce and put it in the net."
Ehlers was assessed a slashing call early in overtime, and the Jets nearly killed it off before Mikko Rantanen's cross-ice pass to Makar led to a one-timer that beat Hellebuyck on the short side.
The Jets now start a two-game road trip in Ottawa on Sunday.