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Josh Morrissey knows his team has it in them.

But there wasn’t much that Colorado had to worry about at the end of a 5-2 victory to even up the best-of-seven series.

Instead, Winnipeg sat back too often at times, sagging when they should have been charging forward.

David Gustafsson’s goal 3:15 into the opening frame was a confidence killer for Alexandar Georgiev, or at least it should have been,

Winnipeg’s hot start cooled off over the remaining 16:45 of the period, allowing Georgiev time to steady a ship that appeared terminal after Game 1.

Morrissey’s club rode the wave of momentum to the go-ahead goal in the second, with Mark Scheifele executing a moment of magic as he one-handed a centring pass past Georgiev.

And then the momentum swung back in Colorado’s favour, resulting in three goals in a little under six minutes.

A couple of bad decisions with the puck, one by Connor Hellebuyck and the other by Nikolaj Ehlers, proved costly.

“We improved our game last night,” head coach Rick Bowness said. “First period, we weren’t in any trouble until the last couple of minutes. Their power play came out and gave them some momentum. We didn’t give up anything on the rush. So there’s big improvements there.”

Colorado’s were more impactful, with Georgiev and his 28 saves leading the way.

His night was much easier on Tuesday. Part of that was simply him not being nearly as shaky as he was in Sunday’s Game 1.

But the Jets let him off the hook.

Winnipeg earned themselves the first two power plays of the game in the opening frame, only to struggle to get themselves set up in the offensive zone, let alone find a shot to put on goal.

Ehlers has all the skill and speed in the world to be a game-changer for Winnipeg, but it hasn’t been there for him just yet in these playoffs.

“They’re going to have to put some points on the board,” Bowness said. “That’s our second line. We expect them to generate some offence.”

A challenge lobbed their way from the head coach.

As Morrissey chose to look at it, it’s now a best-of-five series.

The Jets won in Denver twice this season, including their emphatic 7-0 win in Game 80 of the regular season.

“We weren’t going to go 16-0 in the playoffs, that’s just not how it works,” Morrissey said. “We will look at some areas to get better from (Tuesday), look at some things we did well.

“They’re a great team. They play well at home. But we should have confidence going into that building, having gotten a couple of wins there this year. We’re a confident team. That’s just part of the Stanley Cup playoffs. That’s what makes it so much fun.”

Morrissey chose only to praise the Avs to a point, turning the focus back on his team, one that he said had a great regular season and is feeling good about a lot of their play after two games.

Still, they have to negotiate their first taste of adversity on Friday, something Morrissey said they’ve proven capable of over the course of this season.

“It comes throughout the season in many different ways,” he said. “We’ve always risen to the occasion. We’ve got great leadership, a lot of veteran players and we’re a tight group. We’re ready to handle the ups and downs of the playoffs, and it’s always said, but just turning the page and moving on to the next game is the biggest thing.

“We will do what we need to do today … and start preparing for Game 3.”