Francouz shuts down late Montreal push as Avs win fifth straight

I’ll be honest. I don’t even really know where to start on this one.

Every game is its own miniature story and tonight the story is really just one about a team that keeps winning. Just when it appeared they were getting close to 100%, Nazem Kadri was listed as out.

We don’t really know what the injury is there but the show, as it always does, goes on. And when the puck dropped, Colorado’s other stars only sort of showed up in this one.

Cale Makar’s rush down the ice and walking of Shea Weber created chaos in front of the Montreal net, which was manned by rookie Cayden Primeau making his first NHL start. Matt Calvert and Ryan Graves crashed the net and Graves put the puck in to give the Avs a 1-0 lead.

Just a few minutes later, one of the newcomers to the lineup, captain Gabe Landeskog, accepted “The Rantanen Challenge” and burned Jeff Petry and put the puck home behind Primeau.

Landeskog, like Rantanen, had scored in the first period of his return from injury. Rantanen even assisted on the goal because that’s what they do when they’re on the ice together. Unfortunately, with Kadri out, the forwards were still stretched thinner than the Avs would have liked and the three-headed monster was really only on the ice together in passing or on power plays.

Speaking of power plays, Colorado’s is just okay right now. With the depth issues, it was understandable the unit would slow down some. Now that the big guns are largely all back in place, it needs to start finding the net again.

But instead of doing that, the Avs took advantage of more sloppy play when the other team had the man advantage and for the second time in two nights, the Avs scored a short-handed goal.

This time it was Matt Calvert on a cross-ice pass from J.T. Compher and suddenly it was 3-0 Colorado.

The Canadiens pushed back hard, however, with goals late in the second period and early in the third to completely change the game. Colorado played a pretty steady third before giving way to the typical one-goal game desperation that Montreal turned on at the end.

In those situations, you need a goalie to slam the door shut. Just like Philipp Grubauer did last night in Toronto, Pavel Francouz made some spectacular saves and some routine saves. All of them added up to be just enough for the Avs to escape Montreal with a regulation win.

Given they have had some struggles in that building the last couple years and being on the second night of a back-to-back, a regulation win, no matter how ugly, is a big two points.

Colorado’s schedule has softened a bit as they are on a streak of playing teams that aren’t very good so far this year. That ends Saturday as they head to Boston and two of the league’s best teams will tangle.

The Bruins are a ridiculous 20-3-6 this season but one of their regulation losses was in Denver in a game where the Bruins had two goals disallowed in an Avalanche comeback win. They are also 12-0-5 at home. Colorado enters on a five-game winning streak.

Potential Stanley Cup Final preview?

Now that’s a story I’m looking forward to watching unfold.

GAME TAKEAWAYS

• Colorado’s for-now third line of Nichushkin-Bellemare-Calvert was incredible for the second straight game. They were Colorado’s best line through long portions of the game and the combinations of size and speed caused real problems for the smaller Montreal squad.
• Ryan Graves with another strong game tonight to my eye. Really loved him crashing the net for the opening goal of the game. Given Makar was the initial puck carrier, Graves jumping into that play is an all-in decision because neither defender is back. For a guy who is going to stick based largely on being a defensive defenseman, that’s a ballsy decision and it worked out. He has four goals already this year and the last two are a result of him jumping into the action at the right times.
• Pavel Francouz was very good in the first half of the game but the goals against felt a little iffy. There were defensive issues on them, for sure, but they weren’t highlight-reel goals or anything. The first one was a result of the frequent rebound issues we see crop up with Francouz. His blocker save in the third period was spectacular, however, and the way he dropped the hammer on Montreal’s comeback attempt was awesome. He keeps this up, the Avs might start getting calls from teams looking for a starter.
• Kind of an odd night for the Avs. It never really felt like they were dominating the game but they led throughout most of it and even had a 3-0 lead at one point. It just never felt like they were controlling the play the way the scoreboard would have suggested. Montreal is a smaller, quicker team and you’d think Colorado would play well into that matchup but the transition chances that define so much of the Avs’ success weren’t really there tonight. That meant more of a grindy, cycle-heavy style and that isn’t where Colorado is known for as much success. Learning to win games in different styles is a big part of regular season success.
• Have to hope Jesperi Kotkaniemi is okay. He took a huge (legal) hit from Nikita Zadorov early in the game and it looked like landed on his head. Play was stopped and he was slow to get up and missed the rest of the game with an upper-body injury. Putting out positive energy his way.
• We got to see the complete Cale Makar Experience tonight as he was spectacular on the first goal, driving the net and outmuscling Shea Weber to put the puck on net. He also laid the boom later in the game in a huge collision. There he was on the first Montreal goal as his coverage in front of his net continues to be inconsistent from night-to-night.
• Calvert: two games back, three points. Dennis the Menace, I tell ya.