Jets need to keep winning as they host Avalanche

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WINNIPEG, Manitoba — The Winnipeg Jets will play their second must-win game in 24 hours when the Colorado Avalanche come to the MTS Centre Saturday night.

The Jets defeated the St. Louis Blues 3-0 on Friday to pull within four points of the Los Angeles Kings and the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference but they’re going to need to duplicate the effort if they want to get their playoff hopes off life support.

And then keep the pedal to the metal for the next five weeks.

Jets coach Paul Maurice is confident his troops can maintain their momentum from Friday and, indeed, the past couple of weeks — a 6-5 loss to Minnesota on Tuesday notwithstanding.

“I think we’ve been in that (high-level) mode for a while. The (Minnesota) game after the break was a bit of an aberration. We still put up five against them, the best team in the Western Conference,” he said.

He was happy with the rhythm and effort on display on Friday.

“Higher pressure, higher intensity which means you have to have all four lines (going). We’re on the right track with the style of game we’re playing. It’s going to be a lot more physical of a game (against Colorado), I think, with the way they’ve played us the last few times.”

Maurice was non-committal about who will start in the Jets goal against the Avs. Connor Hellebuyck posted his fourth shutout of the season against the Blues but defacto No. 1 Ondrej Pavelec is healthy once again after suffering a lower-body injury last month.

If the Jets miss the playoffs by a couple of points, they will certainly look back to Feb. 4 as a critical game. That’s when they pulled into Denver riding their only three-game winning streak of the season and promptly got drilled 5-2, starting a four-game losing skid. The Avalanche, at the time, had lost their previous nine games and were scaring nobody.

Colorado, which has been out of the playoff race seemingly since Halloween, limp into Winnipeg with just 17 wins and 37 points and without veteran sniper Jarome Iginla, who was traded to the Kings this week.

Forward J.T. Compher was called up from the San Antonio Rampage and inserted into Iginla’s place in the lineup. He had 13 goals and 30 points in 41 games in the minors and is one of the youthful faces general manager Joe Sakic is hoping can help turn the once-great franchise around.

The former University of Michigan captain centered the Avs third line between wingers Matt Nieto and Blake Comeau and was a winger against the wall on the power play in their 2-1 loss to Ottawa on Thursday.

“I’m just taking everything in stride,” Compher said. “You have to learn from everything that happens and the important part is, I’m here now and just want to take advantage of the opportunity,” the former captain at the University of Michigan told the Denver Post.