On a night where Mark Scheifele passed Thomas Steen for the most NHL games played in a Winnipeg Jets uniform, he did what he could to help his team beat the best team in the league.

But two goals from Scheifele was still not enough as the Jets fell 3-2 at home to the Colorado Avalanche Thursday night, putting another dent into their longshot playoff hopes.

The Jets played them tight for the first 40 minutes, and it was tied going to the third period, but the Avs struck twice in the first four minutes of the final frame and never looked back.

“They got up 3-1. They were really clogging,” said Jets head coach Scott Arniel. “They weren’t giving us a whole lot of looks. I liked a lot of how we played. Until we got down in the game there was a lot of good things happening. We were taking a lot of their speed game. We took a lot of that away and I thought we had our looks.

“We had some opportunities. Not as clean as we had hoped. For Saturday, we’re going to have to get inside and throw some pucks into the blue paint and look for some greasy kinda goals cause they do a good job trying to keep you to the outside as we try to do to them.”

The two teams will meet again in the rematch on Saturday to complete the home and home.

Nathan MacKinnon scored twice in the third period in Colorado’s fourth straight victory. The Jets challenged the game-winning goal for goalie interference after MacKinnon hit Hellebuyck’s trapper on the tip in. But the NHL felt the contact came outside the crease.

“It was a real cross up,” said Arniel. “Referees told us he tipped the puck before his stick went into Helly’s glove. League said it was contact outside or in the white, incidental contact on the white ice. And there’s actually video where MacKinnon’s stick goes into Helly’s glove before the puck hits his stick. Three different opinions going on right now.”

The Avs had lost in their last four straight trips to Winnipeg.

Winnipeg managed just one shot in the final nine minutes and none in the final five as they weren’t even able to pull the goalie for a late push.

“We never got it clean in their zone,” said Jets forward Cole Perfetti. “Even when we did get it in, they would shoot it out. Tough for Helly (Connor Hellebuyck) to come out of the net when kinda 50-50 battles.

“Couldn’t find a clean, easy time to get him to the bench and that’s stuff is gonna happen and unfortunately we kinda just ran out of time.”

Scheifele set a new career high for points with 88 to pass last year’s total. And with 951 career games, he’s now played more games in a Jets uniform than any other player.

“It’s really cool,” said Scheifele. “Honestly, if you would have told me that when I started my career, don’t know if I’d believe you, but I’m obviously very blessed to get to that point.”

Morgan Barron left the game in the third period. After taking a big hit, he fought Josh Manson and took a big right to end the fight and he’s now in concussion protocol.

Scheifele got Winnipeg going by opening the scoring just before the midway mark of the first period. Colorado won a draw in their own end but a clearing attempt by Devon Toews eluded Martin Necas at the point, allowing Josh Morrissey to get to it.

He sent a short pass to Kyle Connor who skated to the slot before sliding the puck to his left where Scheifele was waiting at the faceoff dot to one-time it off the back bar of the net for his 33rd of the season.

The goal also gave him 87 points on the season to tie his career high that he set last season.

The Jets couldn’t quite get to the intermission with the lead, however, as Colorado drew level with 2:20 to go. Standing in front of the net, Jack Drury tried to tip a Sam Malinski point shot past Hellebuyck. Hellebuyck denied the first chance, but Drury slid the rebound through the five-hole while falling to the ice to tie the game.

Winnipeg looked strong for a decent swath of the opening frame but in the end, they were outshot 11-7.

The second period was all about penalty killing.

Winnipeg got the game’s first power play look 3:20 into the second but didn’t do much with it.

Colorado got their first chance at the 6:42 but the Jets penalty kill got the job done.

They would be put under major stress at the tail end of the period as Jonathan Toews was called for hooking with 1:53 left and during the kill, Elias Salomonsson put the puck over the glass on a clearing attempt.

The Jets got to the end of the period without letting Colorado capitalize but they would still have seven seconds of 5-on-3 time to start the third before having 1:22 after that of 5-on-4 time.

But they only needed six seconds after Toews returned to the ice, before he could even get back into the Jets’ end.

After the Avalanche got set up, Nazem Kadri sent a cross-ice pass to MacKinnon at the side of the net. It went off MacKinnon’s skate and fluttered into the crease, sitting loose on the goal line, and the Avalanche superstar was the first to get to it, knocking it home for his league-leading 47th of the season.

Colorado took a penalty just over a minute later, and even though Winnipeg’s top unit spent the entire two minutes on the ice, they failed to generate any good chances.

Right as the penalty expired, Brock Nelson stepped out of the box and was sprung on a breakaway from centre ice, but Hellebuyck turned aside his deke attempt to keep it a one goal game…for all of 16 seconds.

Not long after the ensuing faceoff, Winnipeg turned the puck over in the neutral zone. MacKinnon scooped up the puck and skated back into the Jets’ end before dropping it to his left to Artturi Lehkonen. Lehkonen sent a wrister on goal as MacKinnon drove hard to the net, deflecting the puck into the net right as Hellebuyck tried to glove it out of the air.

The Jets challenged the goal for goaltender interference, believing MacKinnon contacted Hellebuyck’s glove with his stick before touching the puck but the call on the ice stood, giving the Avalanche a 3-1 lead and a power play that the Jets managed to kill off.

Winnipeg found themselves on the power play again with 12:44 to go and while the Jets failed to cash in, the top unit stayed out and forced a turnover that led to Scheifele’s second goal of the night.

Lehkonen had the puck along the wall and was set to exit his own zone when Scheifele got a stick on the puck, igniting a sort of ping-pong sequence where the puck went off the stick of Brent Burns to Gabriel Vilardi back to Burns and back to Vilardi before Vilardi got control of it at the blue line.

He noticed an open Cole Perfetti on the far side of the ice and sent the puck his way before Perfetti one-touched a pass to Scheifele at the back door that Scheifele steered home for 34th of the season and 88th point to set a new career high.

Colorado picked up another penalty with just over six minutes to play when Manson plastered Barron in the corner. Manson was already going to get an interference penalty on the play before Barron got up and dropped the gloves with the Colorado tough guy, who took Barron down with a big knockout punch that sent Barron to the locker room to be checked for a concussion.

Once again, Winnipeg’s power play could not solve one of the league’s most effective penalty kills, failing to generate a shot on goal.

Hellebuyck tried a few times to get to the bench for an extra attacker but was never able to as Colorado kept getting the puck back, eventually running out the clock on a 3-2 win.

Winnipeg remains five points out of a playoff spot thanks to Nashville’s loss to New Jersey.

Hellebuyck made 32 saves in defeat as Colorado outshot the Jets 15-7 in the third and 35-24 for the game.

The two teams will meet again in Denver Saturday. Pregame coverage on 680 CJOB begins at 4 p.m. with the puck dropping just after 6 p.m.