Vilardi scores twice, Jets stay hot with win against Avalanche

WINNIPEG -- Gabriel Vilardi scored twice, and the Winnipeg Jets defeated the Colorado Avalanche 6-2 at Canada Life Centre on Saturday.

“He’s got great hands, he’s got great patience with the puck, and he sees the ice really well,” Winnipeg coach Rick Bowness said. “Big, strong guy that’s hard to play against, but it’s his patience with the puck, and his skill level is really, really underrated. … He has that sense of when and when not to make the play, he hangs on to it long enough and lets the play develop. Then takes advantage of it.”

Nikolaj Ehlers, Alex Iafallo and Vladislav Namestnikov each had a goal and an assist, and Connor Hellebuyck made 30 saves for the Jets (18-9-2), who have won six of seven. Josh Morrissey and Mark Scheifele each had two assists.

“The team play has been outstanding,” Bowness said. “It’s been level. We don’t let the highs and lows affect us. We just keep playing the same way. We want this to continue.”

Jonathan Drouin and Jack Johnson scored, and Ivan Prosvetov made 20 saves for the Avalanche (18-10-2), who have lost six of nine (3-4-2). Nathan MacKinnon had two assists and extended his point streak to 14 games (23 points; six goals, 17 assists).

“Bad. A poor start,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “The Jets came out and were the more determined, more competitive, faster team in the first period and you find yourself down two goals. I thought we got more engaged in the game in the second period, but still we were probably trying to make something out of nothing on some of the entries, which they did a great job of standing up on us. We didn’t play behind them enough, just didn’t do enough to create the offense that you need to against the Jets, especially once you’re down a couple goals.”

Colorado defenseman Cale Makar was scratched with a lower-body injury.

“He’s been dealing with this for a little bit and playing through it and some days it’s better than others,” Bednar said. “Today he wasn’t."

Vilardi gave Winnipeg a 1-0 lead at 13:56 of the first period from below the left circle when he took Scheifele’s backhand pass from his skate to his stick and scored against a sprawling Prosvetov.

“He’s bumping up his play and I’ve seen it before,” Iafallo said of Vilardi. “You can tell he has more confidence with the puck and he’s making great plays with that line. It’s fun to see.”

Namestnikov made it 2-0 on the power play at 15:38 with a one-timer from the slot.

“I think there was some poor decision-making,” Bednar said. “But I guess when you’re behind the eight ball right out of the gate because of lack of preparation or the way the other team comes out and we don’t match that enthusiasm, that competitiveness, that determination, then you feel like you’ve got to get yourself going, so you’re trying to make something happen. I just think it was dead from the start tonight.”

Iafallo extended it to 3-0 at 8:43 of the second period, scoring with a quick backhand from the slot after intercepting Caleb Jones’ pass from behind the net.

“[Namestnikov] and [Cole Perfetti] made great plays, a great forecheck there,” Iafallo said. “They were able to cough it up right in the middle there, so I thought [we] did a great job of getting on the forecheck and putting great pressure on their [defensemen].”

It was Iafallo’s first goal in 19 games. He last scored Nov. 2 in a 5-2 loss at the Vegas Golden Knights.

“Obviously you want to chip in offensively, but sometimes you’ve just got to stick with it and try to play the right way and good things will happen,” Iafallo said. “That’s kind of what I was going through the last few weeks, just trying to help as much as I can.”

Drouin cut it to 3-1 on the power play at 2:02 of the third period. He scored at the left side of the net after Mikko Rantanen’s point shot caromed off the end boards.

“I felt like we won the third, kind of,” Prosvetov said, “but for sure for two periods they’re blocking our offense, not letting us get inside there, picking up rebounds. We’re going to regroup, come back tomorrow because it’s [a] back-to-back, and we’re going to try our best tomorrow (against the San Jose Sharks at home).”

Vilardi made it 4-1 at 3:40 with his second of the game, gathering a rebound off Prosvetov’s pads and tucking in a backhand. Vilardi has six points (three goals, three assists) in his past two games.

Nino Niederreiter extended the lead to 5-1 at 8:48 with a one-timer from the right circle.

Johnson cut it to 5-2 at 10:41 from the high slot.

“Listen, all of the depth on the team, it’s fantastic,” Bowness said. “Because we have that depth, we have a solid team game. Our 5-on-5 game is really good. I was disappointed to see [Colorado] get that second goal, but that’s going to happen sometimes.”

Ehlers scored into an empty net at 17:57 for the 6-2 final.

NOTES: It is the third time MacKinnon has had a point streak of at least 14 games. The only player in Avalanche/Quebec Nordiques history with three or more streaks of that length is Peter Stastny (five). … Colorado is 4-4-1 against Central Division opponents this season. It was 19-6-1 against the Central last season. … Hellebuyck won his fifth straight start and tied Thatcher Demko of the Vancouver Canucks for the NHL wins lead with 15. … Winnipeg went 1-for-2 on the power play after going 0-for-14 in its previous five games.