Pavel Francouz steals the Game 2 spotlight as Avs go up 2-0 on Oilers

Ahhh, yes. The backup goaltender storyline, we meet again.

Backup goalies and quarterbacks are often joked about as the most popular players in town because while the number one guy is in the spotlight, there’s always that section of people clamoring for the next guy in line. The grass is always greener, you know?

Well in a conference finals with Andrei Vasilevskiy, arguably this generation’s best goaltender and a player building an all-time great resume before our eyes, and Igor Shesterkin, this year’s clear runaway favorite to win the Vezina Trophy, you have a head-to-head matchup for the ages.

On the other side, you saw 14 goals get scored in Game 1 out west with all four goaltenders making appearances. Mikko Koskinen ended up being the one who looked the best of those four by the end of Game 1.

With Darcy Kuemper still out as he battles vision issues stemming from the stick he took to the eye in Round 1 against Nashville, Pavel Francouz coolly slid into the spotlight as he backstopped Colorado’s 4-0 win tonight.

Based on how things had gone for the Edmonton Oilers in Rounds 1 and 2 of the postseason, the talk was all about how well Mike Smith rebounded in each series and led the Oilers to victory.

Smith was the story early again as Game 2 picked up with the same frenetic pace we saw through the majority of Game 1. Smith’s save on Devon Toews as Toews broke through the Edmonton “defense” unscathed kept the Avs off the board less than a minute into the game and he would rise to the occasion every time asked of him in the first period.

In a first period that ended 0-0, it was an awfully important development that Smith played the way he did, too. Colorado had all three power plays, including 1:31 of a two-man advantage. The Avs did not capitalize, however, and you felt like the Oilers really “won” the opening frame despite being outshot 14-13.

Smith’s counterpart, Francouz, had a less exciting period but still an adventurous couple of moments after a puck took a wild bounce and ended up on Jesse Puljujarvi’s stick alone in front. He missed wide, however, and Francouz survived the scare. The other interesting moment came when Francouz skated out to nearly the blueline to play a puck and had to stop a Cody Ceci shot attempt while still 20 feet outside his crease.

Francouz settled in, however, and we saw the difference between a goaltender battling vision problems and one who was clearly tracking the puck and able to get himself in the position he really wanted as Francouz was not giving up many rebounds and was rarely caught scrambling.

Without any offense, however, Francouz’s efforts would be wasted, so offense he got.

Colorado’s new-ish second line forechecked the Oilers into oblivion, causing turnovers in offensive zone and Artturi Lehkonen tipped a Nazem Kadri shot past Smith to put the Avs up 1-0.

It was purely the kind of hard-working goal that deserved to finally get by two goalies playing well. Forechecking a team into turnovers and scoring goals is Playoff Hockey 101, after all.

It worked so well that trio went and did it again immediately after the ensuing faceoff as they got into the zone and once again attacked Edmonton’s puck carriers, causing turnovers along the wall. A Kadri feed to Josh Manson saw Manson rip a slapshot past Smith and it was 2-0 in just 15 seconds of game time.

Colorado’s new line of death got a breather after that, but their very next shift they got back to work, moving a puck from the defensive zone and winning the board battle in the defensive zone to create a two-on-one the other way.

Kadri found Mikko Rantanen on the backside of a perfectly executed odd-man rush and the Avs had a 3-0 lead just 6:02 into the second period.

So much for the Oilers feeling like the big winners of the opening frame, eh?

From here, the game took a completely different tone. Edmonton has occasionally not appeared to even start playing until they’ve gotten down by multiple goals and in the last 10 days we’ve seen Colorado blow a 3-0 lead in Game 5 against St. Louis and lose and then watch a 7-3 lead in Game 1 of this series become 7-6 before getting out with a win.

Anecdotally, a three-goal lead has never felt quite so uncomfortable, especially with the Avs still up three on the officiating side of things, too. You knew Oiler power plays were coming, so the Avs either needed to score more goals and really put it out of reach or brace for the inevitable.

I say inevitable for a reason, right? Everyone under the sun knew the Avs were going to wear the next two penalty calls, minimum, as the officials actively seek to even up the calls in close games.

The Avs did their fair share of helping by taking two obvious penalties in the final five minutes of the second period. The Oilers power play has been a major pillar of their postseason success this year and Colorado’s penalty kill has been uneven, to put it kindly.

Except in this game, Colorado’s defensive excellence at 5v5 translated to the penalty kill, too, as they gave up just two shots on goal to the Oilers across both power play attempts.

Entering the third period up 3-0, the Avs killed off the remaining couple of seconds of Nicolas Aube-Kubel’s penalty and immediately got back to work.

As Colorado tightened its grip on the game, giving Edmonton’s offense zero room to operate and taking its star players out of the equation entirely, the Oilers turned up the temperature and got increasingly aggressive, starting with Zack Kassian holding Bowen Byram into the Oilers bench after Byram had been checked into the area. Byram responded in kind and both got penalties.

The third period mostly proceeded like that for the rest of the game. Edmonton tried to intimidate and bully Colorado with nonsense, the Avs responded by doing the same thing they did in St. Louis when David Perron emotionally melted down: they got out of the way, scored another goal, and got out of the game with a clean win.

Circling back to where we started, it was Francouz’s understated excellence tonight that was the backbone of Colorado’s most complete win of this postseason. Great goaltending and great defense typically go hand in hand and tonight we saw a world-class example of that symbiotic relationship playing out for the Avalanche.

Across all situations, the Avs did the following:

• outshot the Oilers 40-24
• outchanced the Oilers 36-17
• had 10-7 advantage in high-danger chances
• finished with a 3.19-1.22 expected goals

That’s territorial dominance. That’s taking Edmonton’s high-flying circus act and shutting it down. Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl each had chances, but they were fleeting moments versus full-blown shifts of excellence like we saw in Game 1.

In the end, this was about Francouz and the team in front of him. I emphasize the team because the team defense was excellent, especially in regards to bracketing McDavid and putting the clamps on him at the blueline instead of giving him the offensive zone to dance and make magic happen.

Waiting was Francouz, who simply didn’t make any mistakes in recording his second career postseason shutout. His team didn’t hang him out to dry and he wasn’t asked to do much in the way of spectacular. A 24-save shutout in the Western Conference Finals is hardly routine, but this was as ho-hum a performance from everyone involved as you can possibly ask for.

Outside of Colorado’s power play woes (the 1-7 stat line is extremely misleading, but somehow still appropriate), this was the Avalanche at their best and the Oilers, well, not anywhere close to their best.

Game 2 is about initial adjustments and Jared Bednar and his staff have to be feeling over the moon about the screws they tightened while Jay Woodcroft and Co. can’t be feeling anything positive about heading back to Edmonton in a 2-0 series hole.

This Avalanche group continues to bring its lunch pail every day, every game, and will head to Canada with a chance to put a stranglehold on this series Saturday night.

TAKEAWAYS

• I really want to follow up and emphasize what a great job Colorado did on McDavid tonight. He’s basically impossible to stop because of his combination of skating (especially his acceleration and balance) and puck wizardry, but the Avs took a measured approach to try to pressure him right as he entered the zone and force him to either try to take an Avs defenseman wide, where they were shading in hopes he tried this, or to use backchecking forward pressure to force him to utilize his teammates. This was especially more effective when Woodcroft started the game with Draisaitl and McDavid broken up because the step down in puck skill from McDavid to literally any other linemate other than Draisaitl is significant. It’s advantage Colorado in that situation and when Woodcroft did sneak Draisaitl out there next to McDavid, they found no more success than with them broken up. The dominance of that pairing coming in was a major storyline and through two games, the Avs adjusted to them both together and apart despite the explosive performances in Game 1. It will be fascinating to watch how the Avs manage this situation with they don’t have the luxury of the last change while on the road, but the key here more than any individual matchup is the team-focused effort on forcing McDavid to either singularly beat them or use his teammates, which the Avs clearly are willing to take their chances with.
• Speaking of matchups, Cale Makar is eating up McDavid head-to-head while Darnell Nurse is getting ripped up by Nathan MacKinnon. Colorado handily winning both of those matchups is a major reason this is a 2-0 series right now.
• Not to be lost in all of this matchup talk is Bowen Byram, who broke 20 minutes of ice time tonight. He spent nearly equal time against Draisaitl and McDavid as his primary assignment and he was at 59% expected goals against each of them. While the full picture of on-ice results isn’t dominating stuff like what we’ve seen from Makar, that the Avs have a guy on another pairing capable of going toe-to-toe with those guys is an incredible weapon in their arsenal.
• I mentioned it on the podcast and I know I’m getting a little ahead of myself here because there’s a long way to go, but Nazem Kadri is building a very interesting Conn Smythe case right now. He’s only tied with Gabe Landeskog for fourth in scoring on the Avs but the pack is close enough right now (they have 14 points and team-leader Makar has 17) that it remains a really interesting conversation for the Avalanche. They are getting it done by committee and by star power and if they can just get the goaltending to consistently be strong, they are going to be a really tough out. Tonight was a great step in that direction from Francouz.
• As long as Kuemper remains unsure about his vision issues, this is Pavel Francouz’s net. I don’t think anything else needs to be said.
• I’ve been very fond this postseason of saying “it takes a village” when referencing playoff success. This is Avalanche team that is now regularly winning behind the offensive prowess of its second line, continues to get nightly offensive production from its defense, and just got a shutout from the backup goaltender. This is as “team” as we’ve seen from an Avalanche team in a long time. Lots of work to do, but this is the formula for series wins.