Winnipeg Jets fans rose to their feet with five minutes to go in the third period on Saturday night at MTS Centre, clapping wildly and screaming Ondrej Pavelec's nickname.

“Pavy! Pavy! Pavy!”

What a difference 11 days makes. Most of those fans last week were instead cursing Pavelec's name after he allowed a shot from outside the blue-line to beat him late in what turned out to be a 5-4 loss to the St. Louis Blues. Now they're back in love with the Czech native.

If nothing else, Pavelec should at least make the last 10 games of the season a wild ride for the Jets and their fans. It's his time now, and the Jets are four points above the playoff line thanks to a 3-0 win over the Washington Capitals Saturday night and a 4-1 L.A. Kings loss to the Vancouver Canucks earlier in the day. The Kings have a game in hand, however.

Pavelec turned aside all 28 shots he faced against Alex Ovechkin and the Capitals, including three in a row with five minutes to go in the third that brought the fans to their feet.

First Pavelec made a nice save on Brooks Laich, who tipped a point shot in close but couldn't slip it past No. 31. Shortly thereafter, Pavelec made his best stop of the night. Mike Green was wide open in the slot to Pavelec's right, but the netminder moved across the crease and swallowed the puck with his glove.

The crowd went nuts.

Shortly after the ensuing face-off Mark Stuart produced an ugly turnover behind his own net, forcing Pavelec to rob Evgeny Kuznetsov as the shot barrage continued. That one, by the way, was Pavelec's favourite save of the night.

“He hit my stick. That would have gone in for sure,” Pavelec said. “Before the save (Green) hit my glove pretty much. I didn't have to do anything, but I liked all of them.”

Pavelec has always battled inconsistency during his career, but he's riding a nice little wave right now. He made his fourth straight start on Saturday night, and he won all four games of Winnipeg's home stand. Can he keep it going? That's the big question with three weeks remaining.

“As an individual, he's responded the best way possible by moving on, putting it behind him, and we're all supporting him and cheering him on,” winger Drew Stafford said of Pavelec's gaffe in St. Louis. “He's been lights out for us. He's bailed us out when we've needed him, and that's what we expect out of him.”

The Jets did a pretty good job of keeping Ovechkin and Co. in check for most of the night until Washington's late bombardment. Ovechkin, who leads the NHL with 47 goals, was held to just two shots and was minus-3 on the night.

“(Pavelec) was really good,” head coach Paul Maurice said. “We did a pretty job through 56 minutes of five-on-five play. Mark Scheifele's line probably did the only thing you can do against that (Ovechkin) line, which is control the puck. If you end up defending against that line all night you're not going to win that. Seventy points says he's going to beat you.

“And then any time we had the breakdowns, Mister Pavelec – and we have to call him mister now – was fantastic.”

Stuart scored his second goal of the season, and first since opening night, in the first period. Stafford centred the puck and it bounced off Scheifele right onto Stuart's stick. Stuart, who crushed John Carlson with a big hit at the red-line earlier in the shift, made no mistake.

Scheifele scored his 13th of the season in the second thanks to a Carlson turnover in the Washington zone. Stafford once again got the play started, forcing the turnover and feeding the puck to Blake Wheeler in the corner. Wheeler fired it out front to Scheifele, who put it in the top right corner over Braden Holtby's glove.

Adam Lowry scored into an empty net with 1:22 to go, and the Jets have their first four-game winning streak since mid-January.

“I don't have to wind these guys up. I really haven't had to,” Maurice said. “They're ready to go.”

They'll now go on a quick two-game road trip to Edmonton and Vancouver before returning home to face several tough customers during another four-game home stand at MTS Centre: Montreal, Chicago, the Rangers and Vancouver.

Will Pavelec still be between the pipes when those games are played?

Judging by the sounds of Saturday night, the fans sure hope so.

kirk.penton@sunmedia.ca

twitter.com/PentonKirk​