Scrappy Avalanche ride hot Francouz to shootout win over Kings

Injuries have a way of revealing the stuff teams are really made of, that secret sauce that separates the pretenders from contenders.

With four regulars missing at forward and playing their backup goaltender for the second straight night, this was the kind of game a team could have lost and many would have shrugged and pointed to any number of reasons why it was acceptable.

And then the Avs…just…forgot to lose.

Playing a stout defensive game, the only goal that managed to get by Pavel Francouz came on a penalty shot that probably shouldn’t have even happened.

In the end, Francouz stopped everything else that came his way, including all three shootout attempts as the Avalanche exacted a little revenge for the Stadium Series mess with a 2-1 victory over the Los Angeles Kings.

The win gave Colorado the two-game sweep in Southern California despite them only scoring two goals in regulation and overtime. With the mounting injury issues at forward, including a late scratch of Andre Burakovsky from the lineup tonight, Colorado’s offense managed to generate a number of great scoring chances but couldn’t find the net.

Their only goal was courtesy was Ryan Graves, who took a drop pass from Gabe Landeskog and used a Val Nichushkin screen to beat Jonathan Quick over his glove and tie the game.

That was it until Joonas Donskoi continued his reputation as a shootout ace when he beat Quick for the only goal in the shootout.

To even get to that shootout, though, Colorado had to live through a stressful overtime that included killing just over a minute of a J.T. Compher penalty. The Avs did it, blocking shots and keeping pucks to the outside.

Four shots did manage to make it through to Francouz but he did his job and successfully put his body in the way and kept the pucks from getting into the net.

The win caps a great week for Francouz, who gave up just two goals in his last three starts while also signing an extension yesterday that will keep him in Colorado for two more years.

While it’s been a circuitous route to NHL success for Francouz, the Avs had faith in him and he has stepped up huge in the wake of Philipp Grubauer’s ongoing injury issues.

Colorado’s win moved them three points ahead of Dallas for second in the Central Division and just one point behind the St. Louis Blues for the lead. The Avs hold a game in hand on the Blues, as well.

For our doom and gloomers, Colorado now has an 11-point lead on the Nashville Predators for missing the playoffs entirely.

GAME TAKEAWAYS

• It’s rare for a team to start a goaltender on both legs of a back-to-back but with Grubauer’s injury and the untested Hunter Miska backing up Francouz, the Avs didn’t really have much of a choice in this one. Francouz stopped 46 of 47 shots across the two games and despite Colorado’s scoring problems led them to all four points. His play will continue to be huge as the trade deadline approaches and the Avalanche are expected to make a move for goaltending depth. Francouz continues to be aces on the road, as well, and the Avalanche are two games into their last road-heavy portion of the schedule with eight of ten games on the road. A 2-0 start on that stretch is just fine.
• This was a muck and grind kind of game and Colorado’s ability to start winning these games in the last few weeks has been huge. They haven’t won all of them but they’re starting to pull a few of these out and that increased comfort in winning in a variety of ways will only serve them well come playoff time. This is a team that continues to face injury adversity and just not seem to be overly phased by it. They may not be blowing anybody out right now with the injury problems but they’re stilling finding ways. Offensive juggernauts never carry over into the postseason anyway so them finding an identity in scrappier games is a legitimately positive development.
• For an MVP candidate, you would have liked to have seen a little more from Nathan MacKinnon the last two games but you also have to credit John Gibson and Quick for rising to the challenge. MacKinnon wasn’t short on opportunities but both goalies came up big. Sometimes you just have to tip your cap to the guys on the other side of the rink and both goaltenders deserve a ton of credit for shutting MacKinnon and Colorado’s offense down. Each made huge saves that could have been goals, not only on MacKinnon but others. And there was Pavel Francouz to beat them both. Hockey, man.
• There were still some iffy moments along the way but for the most part, I liked a lot more of what Gabe Landeskog brought to the ice tonight. He made a nice play to Graves for their only goal in regulation and was rock solid defensively. While his offensive game has been a work in progress lately, I’ve really loved his grinding out puck battles in his own zone and think his work in that area has largely gone unrecognized so I’m giving him some love there. His career has shown the offense will come and I have faith it will. Slowly, you can make the argument it already has started even though the shift-by-shift consistency hasn’t been there like we’ve seen in the recent past.
• Graves, man. Great read, great shot. He continues to be a damn fine revelation for Colorado and once again showed up tonight. I don’t have a lot to say other than just appreciating what great value he’s brought to this team.
• Nichushkin is the forward version of Graves. Great finds, both.
• Donskoi did not have a very good game and he looks like he’s still lacking confidence shooting the puck as he keeps trying to force passes that aren’t there in favor of just shooting the damn thing. The crisis of confidence needs to come to an end pretty soon, though, because the Avs need him. And naturally, he was perfect in the shootout. Great move to beat a goaltender who was in the zone and reading everything all night. He got Quick to bite the fake to the forehand and it got him swimming. Splash.
• Great character win tonight. These are the kinds of wins that are very encouraging. When you don’t have your “A” game and you’re against a goalie making some unreal saves along the way, you just keep working hard. Their commitment to defense against poor offensive teams in Anaheim and Los Angeles was the perfect formula for giving Francouz an easier workload. 47 shots against in two games is great team defense, especially because the penalty kill was perfect and they greatly limited scoring chances.