scorer Ovechkin are also the top candidates to follow Malkin as just the second Russian to win the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP.”Ovi has been a staple since he’s come into the league. Kuzy is a little newer,” coach

WINNIPEG Adidas Jeff Skinner Jersey , Manitoba (AP) — Semyon Varlamov was relieved to finally leave the ice with a win.The Colorado goalie made 24 saves, Gabriel Landeskog scored his team-leading 30th goal and the Avalanche ended their season-high eight-game losing streak with a 4-1 victory over the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday night.“Definitely feeling better now. The win tastes great,” Varlamov said. “It’s been some tough times we’ve been going through the past two months.“The stats aren’t great, we’re losing a lot of games and stuff. We needed this one so bad.”Dominic Toninato got his first NHL goal, while J.T. Compher and Sven Andrighetto also scored for the Avalanche, who were 0-5-3 during their skid. Matt Nieto had two assists.Brandon Tanev scored his career-high 12th goal of the season for Winnipeg, which lost in regulation at home for the first time in 10 games (8-1-1). Connor Hellebuyck made 31 saves.“They were a desperate team,” Winnipeg captain Blake Wheeler said. “It’s been going tough for them. There was a certain amount of desperation in their game. We weren’t able to match it often enough.”Colorado outshot Winnipeg 13-8 in the first period and led 2-1 at the intermission.Toninato started it off by swooping in and sending a rebound into the net at 5:21 in his 38th career game.“It felt great getting the first one out of the way and I can just concentrate on playing my game,” Toninato said. “We’ve been struggling for that, so it was nice to get the win and hopefully we can get rolling now.”Landeskog made it 2-0 with a high backhand shot past Hellebuyck at 10:29, but Tanev responded 24 seconds later by firing a sharp-angled shot by Varlamov.“I don’t think we played our best game Adidas Tage Thompson Jersey ,” Tanev said. “We didn’t get as many pucks to the net as we wanted in traffic and making it difficult for him to see those. But I think we can learn from this and we look forward to playing the next one.”Compher’s short-handed breakaway goal at 6:12 of the second gave the Avalanche a 3-1 lead while stretched their shots-on-goal advantage to 25-17 through 40 minutes.Winnipeg had its second power play of the game early in the third but Varlamov stopped two shots, including a backhand by Patrik Laine, who was back on the Jets’ first power-play unit.The teams traded some power-play time late in the third, but it scored at even strength with 3:39 left tp seal the win.“It’s not just the win, it’s the way our team played,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “Fantastic team effort, real strong commitment to check. All the details of our game and the whole lineup. No passengers.”NOTES: Jets D Joe Morrow and Avalanche F Matt Calvert started swinging fists at each other with 10 seconds left to cap off the night.UP NEXTAvalanche: host St. Louis on Saturday night.Jets: Host Ottawa on Saturday night to end a three-game homestand. WASHINGTON (AP) Alex Ovechkin knows the Washington Capitals have plenty of fans back in Russia.”Over there lots of friends, lots of people watch the games,” Ovechkin said of his countrymen. ”It’s been huge.”He is also huge in Barrie, Ontario, where projected top-five draft pick Andrei Svechnikov has been watching Ovechkin Adidas Rasmus Andersson Jersey , Evgeny Kuznetsov and Dmitry Orlov serve as inspirations for young Russian players and fans on this run to the Stanley Cup Final. The native of Siberian city Barnaul got to meet his fellow Russians on Monday morning and got an up-close view of their dominance in Game 4 that night.”(Ovechkin) and Kuzy and Orlov, these guys just famous in hockey world,” Svechnikov said. ”I am very happy.”Ovechkin, Kuznetsov and Orlov are making plenty of young Russian players and fans happy. They are just one win away from winning the Stanley Cup. Svechnikov admired smooth-skating, high-scoring Hall of Fame winger Pavel Bure growing up, and now watches in amazement at what Kuznetsov does on the ice with his skill – not to mention his bird-flapping celebrations.”Great skater. Every time wants to be involved, hungry every time. Very smart player. A lot of skill,” Svechnikov said of Kuznetsov, who leads the playoffs in scoring and added four assists in a 6-2 win over Vegas. ”He just like star, you know? He can do whatever he want.”The joy of Ovechkin, Kuznetsov and Orlov is being watched closely not only in Washington but back home where they’re big fan favorites.”A lot of people watching it because three Russian players in Washington and obviously Ovi big superstar in the world and everybody follow Adidas Dalton Prout Jersey ,” Orlov said. ”A lot of fans, a lot of kids enjoy his game.”The Capitals could have the most Russians on a Cup champion in the salary-cap era. The 2004 Tampa Bay Lightning were backstopped to their first franchise title by Nikolai Khabibulin, and the Detroit Red Wings’ Russian Five in the 1990s shined a spotlight on all the talent coming out of the old Soviet system.After Evgeni Malkin was the only Russian player on the Pittsburgh Penguins’ back-to-back Cup champions the past two seasons, this is another showcase of this generation of talent. Playoff leading scorer Kuznetsov and leading goal-scorer Ovechkin are also the top candidates to follow Malkin as just the second Russian to win the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP.”Ovi has been a staple since he’s come into the league. Kuzy is a little newer,” coach Barry Trotz said. ”People don’t really know him as well as Ovi. You’re seeing the talent of Kuzy. You’ve seen the greatness of Ovi over the course of his career to this point. I think Kuzy is just getting better and better.”The 26-year-old Kuznetsov is reluctant to talk about himself or any other individual player, but he knows this is special for Ovechkin, who is 32 and has been waiting 13 seasons for this with nine previous early playoff exits to his name.”Every Russian guy back home pretty happy for him because that’s huge,” Kuznetsov said. ”That’s a long time.”Ovechkin wished Svechnikov good luck later this month at the NHL draft, where he was the No. 1 pick back in 2004. A short conversation at a morning skate was enough to leave Svechnikov beaming.”Just famous guy – everybody knows him and everybody watch him,” Svechnikov said. ”It’s just an honor to have met with him.”—More Stanley Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/tag/StanleyCupFinals—