Avs-Jets Game 2 Studs & Duds

The Colorado Avalanche beat the Winnipeg Jets 5-2 in Game 2 of their Round 1 series in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Below are the Studs and Duds for the Avs.

Studs

Artturi Lehkonen

The little engine that could for the Avs got rolling again tonight and when Lehkonen is on his game, he is a difference-maker. He lacks the natural finishing ability to be a high-level scorer but he is wonderful around the net and his tip-in goal on the Cale Makar point shot silenced a raucous Winnipeg crowd.

That goal tied the game at 2-2 and kickstarted the Avs from trying to tie the game to trying to take complete control of it, which is exactly what they did. The Avalanche are at their best when they use their prolific speed to hunt other teams and force them into mistakes.

They were already playing well before Lehkonen’s goal, but after that goal they really got dialed in and the Jets shrank from the moment. I’ve seen some from Winnipeg unhappy about Lehkonen’s role in the fourth Avalanche goal as they believe he tripped Nikolaj Ehlers (he might have, but it’s hard to definitively tell) when he got the puck moving up the ice for Josh Manson’s breakaway goal (lol).

It didn’t show up in the scoresheet but I wanted to point out that Lehkonen was singularly responsible for two zone clears during the third-period penalty kill while the Avs nursed a two-goal lead. The first one was routine stuff but the second was particularly excellent as he stripped the puck from Neal Pionk and got it down the ice with 13 seconds remaining in the man advantage, effectively ending Winnipeg’s best opportunity to close the gap to one goal.

Cale Makar

The defense is still something you can quibble with because it remains imperfect with the Jets finding some of their most consistent offensive success with him on the ice. That isn’t entirely the fault of Makar, of course, but it is one of the few pockmarks I have with Makar through two games.

I’m curious to see how Jared Bednar’s usage of Makar changes back in Denver where he can hunt the more favorable matchups for his superstar defenseman, but Makar did walk out of tonight with two more assists and is up to five points already this postseason, so you know, it may not be so broken.

Anyway, where Makar continues to truly shine is offensively (shocker). He is back to being that dynamic game-changing force with the puck on his stick and his aggression is something the Jets are merely attempting to survive with some of the chances he is able to create.

Makar is a stick of dynamite and on a night where Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen were struggling (to the tune of a combined two points, so their standard “bad” nights), Makar helped drive the offense forward. He looked great yet again. I’d love to see that defense round into form, though, and for him to find success when not on the ice with MacKinnon’s line, but those are tomorrow’s problems.

Alexandar Georgiev

The man of the night, Georgiev responded to putting up one of the worst playoff goaltending performances in Avalanche history by locking down the Jets with 28 saves on 30 shots.

Both of the goals that got by him were not ones you’d really expect much more for, though if you squinted really hard you could talk yourself into the second goal being ripe for a miracle save, and he came up with a handful of great saves beyond that.

That last part is the key because Georgiev wasn’t able to come up with nearly any big saves in Game 1, which led to the Avs frustratingly losing despite scoring six goals against superstar goaltender Connor Hellebuyck.

The timing of Justus Annunen’s illness for Games 1 and 2 of this series could become one of the great sliding doors moments in Avalanche history if Georgiev fully rebounds from the embarrassing Game 1 showing and backstops Colorado to a series victory or more. Had Annunen been healthy, it’s fair to believe he would have at the very least replaced Georgiev in Game 1 and potentially started Game 2.

Because Annunen was unavailable tonight, Georgiev took the net back and rose to the occasion. It was the kind of redemptive night that makes sports so incredible because we all love the story of a player whose back is against the wall scratching and clawing back into the good graces of everyone. It’s only one game and all, but how can you not root for Georgiev to build on this and go back to Denver to an Avalanche fanbase desperate to love on him for Game 3?

Colorado’s third line

The Miles Wood-Ross Colton-Joel Kiviranta trio had some real questions coming into this series as Kiviranta was elevated from potentially not even in the lineup to playing after Jonathan Drouin was ruled out for the entire series following Game 82.

Wood scored in Game 1 and seemed to regain the mojo that had escaped him the last 20 or so regular-season games and then repeated the feat tonight. He caught Hellebuyck off-guard with a quick wrister following a won faceoff by Colton and it tied the game and really catapulted the Avalanche’s confidence.

Through 8:40 of 5v5 time together, this trio had its way with the Jets to the tune of a 7-2 advantage in shots on goal but the numbers of quality were even more impressive as they outdid Winnipeg with a 10-3 scoring chance advantage and won 5-1 in high-danger chances.

Add in that their primary competition was Winnipeg’s top two lines led by Mark Scheifele and Sean Monahan and their territorial advantage was even more impressive. This is a matchup that Bednar should continue giving a chance back in Denver because his guys were handling it so comfortably.

Duds

Colorado’s fourth line

Unlike the Colton-centered third line, Colorado’s fourth line did not have such a quality evening. The shot share was pretty ugly as the Jets enjoyed a 5-0 win in shots on goal, 5-2 in scoring chances, and 4-1 in high-danger chances.

The Andrew Cogliano-Yakov Trenin-Brandon Duhaime trio also gave up the game’s first goal when Trenin took a nice wide turn and left his guy open in front for a free rebound goal. Things did take an uptick when Duhaime was swapped for Zach Parise and Trenin forechecked hard to create the chaos that led to Cogliano finding Parise for Colorado’s third goal, which ultimately became the game-winner.

Because the other three lines enjoyed at least moderate success, this line struggling as much as it did was mitigated some but it is an area the Jets will pick out in their video work over the next two days as they try to pinpoint a Colorado weakness to attack.

If I’m Rick Bowness, this is where I start.

Sean Walker

The other area I start with is Walker, who played a soft defensive game and was on the ice and partially responsible for both of Winnipeg’s goals and multiple excellent scoring chances.

The Walker experiment has hit a curious snag with no Sam Girard because Walker has been moved up the lineup and the results are…mixed, in my opinion. I haven’t loved Walker alongside any of Colorado’s other top three defenders but we’ve also seen his game become overly muted playing alongside the shot-share black hole that is Jack Johnson.

So, what to do if you’re Bednar and Co.? Honestly, I don’t have a good answer, but I had a hard time with Walker’s game tonight as he was physically overwhelmed on multiple occasions and that is an unacceptable result in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. It just is. You have to compete and Walker didn’t seem as interested in that part of the game as I’d like to have seen. Competitiveness is a major part of the battle in the postseason and Walker needs to get into the fight more often.

Brandon Duhaime

I loved how this guy adapted to Colorado after being acquired at the trade deadline, but I don’t know where that swift-skating physical menace has gone through two games. He’s a chirper who loves to mix things up after the whistle and on the bench and then go out and smoke anybody who has the puck.

We haven’t seen that guy so far and the one nice hit he finally laid in Game 2 was on a guy who hadn’t yet gotten hold of the puck so Duhaime was called for interference in the third period with his team protecting a two-goal lead. That’s not at all what you’re looking for from him and he only played one more shift after getting out of the penalty box.

Unsung Hero

Yakov Trenin

I like to use this space for guys who had a night with a mixed bag of results. Trenin is an easy candidate because he didn’t play much (only 8:35) but he figured in a decent amount of game-changing plays.

As mentioned above, he rounds it off and loses David Gustafsson for Winnipeg’s first goal, but his work on the penalty kill later in the penalty almost caught an unsuspecting Hellebuyck napping with a free goal. Later on, it was Trenin’s forecheck on Hellebuyck that sprang a puck loose and it ended in Parise’s game-winner. It’s a short video but enjoy three impactful plays from Trenin tonight.