Werner shines for Avs in NHL debut

WINNIPEG — Adam Werner made 40 saves in his NHL debut for the Colorado Avalanche in a 4-0 win against the Winnipeg Jets at Bell MTS Place on Tuesday.

“You need to have a dream, and a big dream out there, and work for it and be prepared if something happened,” Werner said. “I had a pretty great start there, an easy shot, and I get a feel for the puck. The guys helped me so much, so it was a nice game to play for me.”

Werner replaced Pavel Francouz 31 seconds into the game after the starting goalie was injured in a collision in his crease with Jets center Mark Scheifele.

[WATCH: All Avalanche vs. Jets highlights]

“Of course, there’s some nerves,” Werner said. “But you just get in there in a short time, and I guess I just tried to have fun and play my game.”

Nathan MacKinnon had two goals and two assists, and Joonas Donskoi scored and had two assists for the Avalanche (11-5-2), who have won three games in a row following an 0-4-1 stretch. Matt Calvert had two assists.

Video: COL@WPG: MacKinnon scores 18 seconds into the 3rd

“I’m really happy for [Werner]. It’s an amazing performance for him,” MacKinnon said. “Came in so comfortably and made some huge saves. It wasn’t just an easy game for him.”

The Jets (10-8-1) had their five-game point streak come to an end (4-0-1) and dropped to 5-5-1 at home.

“If the shots were 40-[25] for them tonight, I would have been pretty darn disappointed,” Winnipeg coach Paul Maurice said. “So I’m not walking away from this one too dejected. Two years of being an absolutely dominant home team, and I’m not sure we can expect that, but that’s fine. Because we’ve been pretty tight and pretty good on the road. We’re going to have to scratch and claw wherever the puck’s dropped. We’re going to have to go a little harder than we did tonight.”

Cale Makar made it 1-0 with 59 seconds left in the first period when he skated around sprawled Jets forward Mathieu Perreault in the left face-off circle and shot from the hash marks. The rookie defenseman has scored four times during a three-game goal streak.

MacKinnon scored from the left circle 18 seconds into the third period to give Colorado a 2-0 lead and again on a breakaway at 7:13 to make it 3-0.

Video: COL@WPG: MacKinnon streaks in and scores second goal

“It was a frustrating game,” Jets defenseman Josh Morrissey said. “It just felt like we were right there, and the puck just kind of didn’t go our way a couple times. We had a lot of chances. Give him credit, their goalie made a lot of big saves.

“These are the ones where you feel like you do a lot of good things, and then you end up with nothing to show for it, nothing on the board.”

Donskoi scored on the power play at 13:13 to make it 4-0.

“It wasn’t our best game, but we played hard and did some really good things,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “Our goalie steps up. And Nathan MacKinnon and his line too. We were, you’d say, a little bit opportunistic tonight.”

Werner was recalled from the Colorado Eagles of the American Hockey League on Nov. 7 with No. 1 goalie Philipp Grubauer out with a lower-body injury. The 22-year-old was selected in the fifth round (No. 131) of the 2016 NHL Draft by the Avalanche.

Video: Werner earns Tuesday’s Pepsi Zero Sugar Shutout

Bednar did not have an update on Francouz.

“I think that’s seven guys now out of our lineup (because of injury), so it’s a lot, and impact players and players at every position,” Bednar said. “To see our guys continue to grind and sort of carve out some wins here and there, they’re not always pretty, but you’ve got to try to find a way to win, and that’s what we did tonight.”

Winnipeg goalie Connor Hellebuyck made 21 saves on 25 shots.

They said it

“That’s the biggest key for me, great karma and great positioning.” — Avalanche goalie Adam Werner, who won his NHL debut in relief of injured starter Pavel Francouz

“In the first period, there was some offense that we just totally left on the table. We needed to be a little sharper with our hands.” — Jets coach Paul Maurice

Need to know

MacKinnon has eight points (three goals, five assists) in the past three games. … Makar extended his point streak to four games (four goals, three assists). … Donskoi has four goals and two assists in the past three games. … Scheifele was called for goaltender interference on the play that injured Francouz.