Burns scores, Avalanche top Jets in 12th consecutive home win

DENVER -- Brent Burns scored a goal, and the Colorado Avalanche held on to win their 12th consecutive game at home, 3-2 against the Winnipeg Jets at Ball Arena on Friday.

The goal was his fifth of the season, and Burns became the fourth defenseman in NHL history to record at least five goals in a season at age 40 or older.

Martin Necas and Parker Kelly also scored, and Josh Manson had two assists for the Avalanche (25-2-7), who are 14-0-2 on home ice and have extended their point streak to seven games (6-0-1). Scott Wedgewood made 20 saves.

“I loved our game 5-on-5. First period, I thought we could have been up more,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “Second period, we were really good again. One of our better defensive efforts of the year and physical.

“Made a mistake on the power play, gave up the short-handed one. Made a mistake on the penalty kill, gave up a quick power-play goal. But besides that, I liked our game. I thought it was, like, really solid.”

Morgan Barron and Mark Scheifele each scored a goal, and Connor Hellebuyck made 23 saves for the Jets (15-17-2), who have lost three straight and are 1-5-1 in their past seven games.

“There were a lot of good things. Don't want to get down to that team that quick, 2-0, obviously, but at the end of the day, we stayed in the game,” Winnipeg coach Scott Arniel said. “Right now, we're a delicate, fragile group, and we're finding ways to lose games. We got to somehow kind of [get] that next play that ties that game or gets us in the lead early on, and those are the things that we have to do.”

Burns scored when his wrist shot from above the right circle caromed off the left skate of Winnipeg defenseman Haydn Fleury and past the right leg of Hellebuyck to make it 1-0 at 9:45 of the first period.

“It took me four shifts in the first period there to start to finally realize that I just got to pass it over to Brent, and then he can make plays from there. He's been hot,” Manson said. “It's nice to play with him now, where I get to give it to him and let him just make plays up there.”

Necas extended it to 2-0 at 15:05 when he beat Winnipeg forward Cole Perfetti in a foot race before finishing Nathan MacKinnon’s centering pass past Hellebuyck's glove with a wrist shot from between the hashes.

Barron scored a short-handed goal at 19:22 of the second period to cut it to 2-1. He beat Colorado defenseman Cale Makar to a clear off the glass at the left wall of Colorado’s zone, cut through the left dot toward the crease, and went forehand to backhand past Wedgewood's glove while skating by the crease.

“‘Bucky’ made a great save on the play, obviously. Kind of a breakdown, and then I think everyone else just kind of lost sight of the puck,” Barron said. “Happened to kind of find it in the air and had a little bit of a step on everyone. Obviously, a big goal to, kind of, bring it back within [one], but got to find a way to close out those games and get back in it.”

The goal was his second short-handed goal of the season.

Kelly deflected Manson’s shot through his own legs and under Hellebuyck to make it 3-1 at 1:58 of the third period.

“Honestly, I just wanted to get a screen, and the puck was on the ice,” Kelly said. “So just tried to touch it a little bit. And, yeah, I look behind and it's in the net. So yeah, feels nice.”

Scheifele cut it to 3-2 with a power-play goal at 3:38. After winning it off the draw at the right face-off circle in the Jets offensive zone, Scheifele got the puck to Josh Morrissey, who then found Gustav Nyquist at the point. Scheifele moved to the right side of the crease and shoveled Nyquist’s feed inside the post.

“It's kind of been our Achilles' heel,” Barron said. “It feels like a lot of times when we play poorly or play OK, it's a one-goal game and we just can't, kind of, find that extra juice to squeeze two points out of it. So there's obviously some things we can build on, but sooner or later, [we've] got to find a way. We're in the crunch time here.”

NOTES: Barron scored his fifth career short-handed goal, which is tied for the sixth most in Jets/Thrashers history. … MacKinnon, who had an assist, recorded 125 points (53 goals, 72 assists in 82 games) in a calendar year (including playoffs) for the third time, which passed Mikko Rantanen (two times) for the second most in Avalanche/Nordiques franchise history. Only Peter Stastny (four times) has recorded more. … Colorado’s 12 straight wins at home is the second-longest home win streak in Avalanche/Nordiques franchise history. The longest was 18 wins from Nov. 11, 2021-Jan. 30, 2022. … Perfetti played just one shift in the third period. “That was just a coach’s decision,” Arniel said.