The start of an East coast road trip marked the beginning of an unconventional schedule as the Avs make their way to Finland for the Global Series next week. The road trip began in New York with a fun match-up against two strong Stanley Cup-contending teams from last season – the Colorado Avalanche and the New York Rangers.
Colorado entered tonight’s contest 3-2-1 and highly motivated to right the course where weak play on the penalty kill has plagued them – a storyline that lends itself to Alexandar Georgiev as tonight’s starting goaltender. Georgiev wanted out of New York for some time and finally got his chance in Colorado.
At 5-on-5, Georgiev has a 0.948 SV% and is ranked sixth in the league at even strength. Even generally, his 0.908 SV% comes in a hair higher than last year’s Vezina winner, Igor Shesterkin who sat at 0.901. The woes of the penalty kill have tested the goaltender early, but he still started 3-0-1.
The conversation has partly been that the strong defensive play and aggressive puck possession identity of Colorado would give Georgiev the support he needed up front to emerge as a true starter. This has been an identity Colorado is fine-tuning at the start of the season having given up, on average, 30.7 shots on net per game – ranked 11th in the league.
First Period
Past the ten minute mark, Mikko Rantanen drew a hooking call against Kaapo Kakko. The ensuing powerplay generated a great chance due to hard work. Artturi Lehkonen pushed the puck behind the nets and MacKinnon played it out high. Cale Makar shot the puck from the high slot and Val Nichushkin continued on his hot streak with a well-placed tip-in.
Controversially, a high-sticking penalty was called on New York’s Alexis Lafrenière. It was inarguably Devon Toews’ own stick high on Cale Makar 15:11 into the first period, and the Rangers righteously killed the errant penalty call.
It was a solid period. The Avs managed to capitalize on the powerplay against New York’s 9th-ranked penalty kill. Colorado’s corsi-for percentage was split 50/50 evenly against the Rangers. The Avs earned a slight edge in the shots battle 19-11, were blocking shots, and generating chances inside home plate.
Second Period
Curiously, Dryden Hunt was assessed an interference penalty at the conclusion of the first, so the Avs began the second period on the penalty kill. Hunt was Colorado’s recent waiver claim from New York. He is billed as a highly physical player and inopportune penalties can sometimes be attached to this type of guy, but this call specifically felt like a make-up call in response to the shenanigans of the Lafrenière call.
When Lukas Sedlak was claimed on waivers, the delayed timeline for Darren Helm’s return coupled with Gabriel Landeskog’s surgery further hurt Colorado’s depth. A struggling bottom six with players like Ben Meyers and Anton Blidh failing to assimilate also made Hunt’s arrival timely.
New York has briefly lost Filip Chytil to an upper-body injury, so their depth has also taken a hit in losing Dryden Hunt.
It was a controlled and successful penalty kill. About six minutes in, Georgiev made some timely saves against a circling Lafrenière.
At 9:33 into the second, Mikko Rantanen drew another hooking call – this time against Jacob Trouba defending against a breakaway chance. This powerplay struggled a little to get going and was ultimately killed.
Shortly after, J.T. Compher took a hooking call against Lafrenière. Trouba to Lafrenière – Georgiev save. Homerun pass to Artemi Panarin – denied by Georgiev. Colorado managed to kill their second penalty of the night.
The Rangers regained some footing in this frame. Colorado allowed a 3-on-2 chance and Erik Johnson lost his guy on the backside. Girard laid down in an attempt to block the passing lane to Trouba, but a cross-crease passing play from Trouba to Barclay Goodrow found the back of the net anyways. Georgiev was sprawled in a full split and nearly had that part of the net covered – the goal-against was not for a lack of trying.
To add insult to injury, Josh Manson took a holding penalty against Panarin with 36 seconds remaining. The Avs would begin the third exactly how they started the second: on the penalty kill.
New York outshot Colorado 15-7 and outbodied them 31-16 in total hits by the end of that period. Similarly, the corsi-for percentage also tilted in favor of the Rangers 58.06% as they gained an edge in the possession game. It was tied 1-1, but the Avs had work to do.
Third Period
About a minute into the start of the final period and the kill, Bo Byram made a sweeping clear. Shesterkin left the crease to play the puck and Andrew Cogliano challenged him and recovered the puck – Shesterkin cut his losses and returned to the net. Cogliano passed it to Logan O’Connor in the slot and the snakebitten skater finally found the finish he was searching for, beating a talented Shesterkin gloveside and shorthanded. You don’t see that every day.
You also don’t see MacKinnon turn the puck over too often, but near the six minute mark MacKinnon coughed it up to Adam Fox in the o-zone and the Rangers pounced. Toews and Rantanen attempted to skate back, but the backcheck fell short and Georgiev was exposed.
A delayed call on MacKinnon put the Avs down a man for the last 90 seconds. Colorado weathered that storm and gave us the goaltending storyline of our greatest heart’s desires.
A shootout.
The first three rounds of the shootout yielded goals by Mikko Rantanen and Artemi Panarin in Round 3 before moving into the extra frame. Once there, Evan Rodrigues made the move of his life to embarrass Igor Shesterkin and was followed by another casual denial at the other end by Georgiev, thus sealing the victory for the Avalanche.
Evan Rodrigues shootout winner #GoAvsGo 🥵🥵🥵 https://t.co/1Bl4fWwSx4
Observations:
- Val Nichuskin has 12 points in seven games (7 G, 5 A). He’s the points leader with the best shooting percentage of the team at 26.9%. With three minutes remaining in the second period of a 1-0 game, Nathan MacKinnon entered the zone relatively uncontested and deferred to Nichushkin. I believe this is a testament to the trust Nichushkin has built in the critical eyes of MacKinnon as a total asset.
- Josh Manson struggled in this game. He had one official giveaway, took a holding call, and the worst possession at every strength of all players just behind Erik Johnson and J.T. Compher.
- Alexandar Georgiev looked stellar in tonight’s contest. He made 44 of 46 saves and earned a 0.957 SV%. It was a competitive head-to-head – Shesterkin is an all-world talent after all. He had a 0.857 SV% in high-danger (HD) chances and made 12 HD saves compared to Shesterkin’s 9 HD saves against 10 HD chances.
