WINNIPEG, Manitoba -- Mark Scheifele put in the kind of performance Winnipeg hockey fans have come to expect lately, but the Jets did something no one saw coming Saturday night.

Scheifele scored his 22nd goal of the season -- and his 10th in the last 12 games -- and chipped in an assist as the Jets rallied to defeat the Colorado Avalanche 3-2 in NHL play at the MTS Centre.

The Winnipeg center, who turns just 23 on Tuesday, cut a 2-0 deficit in half with a power play goal at 16:29 of the second period and then registered a helper on right winger Drew Stafford's 18th of the year at 7:26 of the final frame as the hosts pulled even.

Winnipeg center Adam Lowry scored the go-ahead goal just 95 seconds later, squeezing the puck through Avs goalie Semyon Varlamov's pads after taking a pass from Scott Kosmachuk on a two-on-one break. The goal was the fifth of the year for Lowry, who also dished out some heavy hits and was named the game's first star.

The assist was Kosmachuk's first career NHL point after being recalled from the Manitoba Moose of the American Hockey League a week ago.

The Jets finally recorded a third-period comeback victory. Coming into the game, the club was 0-24-3 when trailing after 40 minutes.

In fact, the Jets haven't stormed back to steal many points over much of the last two seasons. And just about everybody knows it.

"(A Canadian broadcaster) just told me out there, the last two seasons we were 1-44-7 after trailing after two (periods). It's good to beat the odds, for sure," said Scheifele.

"It shows us that if we stick to our game plan and we don't try to open anything up, being down a goal, it shows that the game plan works. The way that we played in the first two periods, even though we were down by one, it works."

Winnipeg (28-35-5) remains just steps from the league cellar. The Avalanche (35-31-4) hold down the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference, tied with the Minnesota Wild.

Colorado center Matt Duchene fed a perfect pass to Erik Johnson and the blueliner notched his 10th of the season to snap a scoreless tie early in the second period. Duchene made it 2-0 less than two minutes later with a bit of a garbage goal and the Jets a man short for his career-high 29th tally.

After the Jets pulled ahead, Avalanche head coach Patrick Roy replaced Varlamov with the extra attacker with 2:19 left in the third period and the Jets killing a penalty. But the hosts held on for their first victory in five games and just their fourth in the last 15 tries.

Jets goalie Ondrej Pavelec made 35 stops, while Varlamov registered 27 saves.

Scheifele has 18 points since Winnipeg's top center, Bryan Little, suffered a season-ending injury Feb. 18 against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

He's developing into the kind of top performer the Jets figured he could be when they selected him as their first-ever draft pick in 2011 after the franchise moved north from Atlanta.

"I've been playing the same hockey. Every day I want to become a better hockey player," said Schiefele, 22, from Kitchener, Ontario. "Obviously I've taken this challenge with a lot of motivation being with (Little) out. I obviously come to the rink with a lot more motivation knowing I'll be playing tougher players in tougher matchups."

Jets head coach Paul Maurice considered Saturday's outing the young center's best of the season.

"We've talked about Mark Scheifele for about three weeks because he's scoring all these points. That was his finest game in the last three weeks regardless of the hat trick (March 5 against Montreal) or any of the other games.

"He played a fantastic game down low — hard game down low. And then scores the goal. That's as good a game as I've seen Mark play in a long, long time."

The Jets go west to battle the Canucks on Monday night and the Flames on Wednesday before returning home to face their former captain, Andrew Ladd, and the Chicago Blackhawks on Friday night.

NOTES: Colorado was without its captain, LW Gabriel Landeskog, who began serving a three-game suspension for his cross-check on Anaheim Ducks D Simon Despres on Wednesday. Avalanche D Chris Bigras is still out with a concussion. ... Jets D Dustin Byfuglien was in the lineup Saturday, despite suffering an upper-body injury in Thursday's loss to the Detroit Red Wings. Sidelined with injuries for Winnipeg were RW Anthony Peluso (upper body), C Bryan Little (upper body), LW Nikolaj Ehlers (upper body) and RW Joel Armia (lower body), while D Julian Melchiori was a healthy scratch. ... Avalanche RW Jarome Iginla recorded one point to tie legendary Rangers forward Jean Ratelle (1,267) for 36th place on the NHL's all-time scoring list. ... Winnipeg's most successful goaltender this season is playing in the American Hockey League. Connor Hellebuyck was 13-11-1 in a long stint with the Jets earlier this season, while the club's current netminders, Ondrej Pavelec and Michael Hutchinson, came into the weekend with just seven victories apiece.