The Avs had faith Philipp Grubauer could still be a No. 1 goalie. Now he's proving it

Philipp Grubauer sat at his locker stall, sweat pouring out every pore of his body.

“You guys should talk to someone else for a few minutes” Grubauer told a couple of reporters standing by the stall, implying that he needed a bit more of a breather before he started to talk.

Finally, after a period in which at one point he hunched over, staring at the carpet in a repose that said “Phew”, Grubauer took time to discuss another game in which he was the Avalanche’s No. 1 star in a startling, unexpected late-season playoff push.

“It was a good game, but I’m not really satisfied with how I played today,” Grubauer told BSN Denver.

Say what? You mean, he can be even better?

“Too many pucks bounced away. Too many second opportunities. I always felt like I was a little bit behind on the play,” Grubauer said. “Not one of my better ones, but I’ll take it.”

Grubauer stopped 29-of-31 shots for the victory, which moved the Avs back into the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference. It might only be temporary, as a Minnesota Wild win Saturday night in Carolina would see-saw them back into that second spot.

Still, as hard as it is to believe, the Avs actually control their own destiny in the fight for that playoff spot – and oh, hey, they are only two points back of Dallas right now for the first wild-card spot (Dallas has a game in hand).

The Avs had to overcome a lot to win this one, starting with the absence of Mikko Rantanen because of that upper-body injury suffered after a hit from the Stars’ Joel L’Esperance the other night in Dallas. Jared Bednar said after the game that Rantanen won’t play Sunday in Chicago either, but that he’s “day to day, hopefully just a couple days.”

The Avs had to overcome a Chicago team that played a pretty strong game. The Blackhawks had the puck an awful lot, winning the Corsi battle pretty decidedly. And, the Avs had to overcome a home game again feeling like a road game, thanks to all those Chicago transplants that buy tickets on StubHub or Seat Geek months in advance.

Grubauer was the glue that kept everything together, especially by the second period of a scoreless game in which it was starting to feel a little dicey for the Avs. J.T. Compher finally broke the scoreless tie in the second, but Jonathan Toews tied it up a couple minutes later.

But toward the latter half of the second period, the Avs got a big break thanks to penalties 39 seconds apart, the latter being a David Kampf double-minor high-sticking call to the face of Tyson Barrie (boy, it was close for Barrie having a potentially very serious eye injury, but the stick caught him on the lower portion of an eyebrow, so he was able to return after missing a shift or two).

Colin Wilson (Colin Wilson!) scored a tap-in off a nice crossing pass from Alexander Kerfoot to put the Avs ahead to stay. Sven Andrighetto (a very solid game taking Rantanen’s place on the top six) scored a huge insurance goal in the third, a tip of an Erik Johnson shot that withstood video review.

Erik Gustaffson atoned for his sin of high-sticking Barrie with a goal at 12:04 to cut it to 3-2, but Chicago made a bad pull of goalie Corey Crawford and paid for it on Derick Brassard’s third goal as an Av, into the vacant net. The Blackhawks didn’t have good enough possession of the puck when Crawford scurried to the bench, and he was caught in no-man’s land when Brassard and Nathan MacKinnon came into the Chicago zone on a 2-on-1.

Grubauer now has established himself as the new No. 1 goalie on the team. But, Bednar did say it would be a tough decision for him as to who starts Sunday’s game in the Windy City. Grubauer has played a lot of high-pressure hockey of late, and Semyon Varlamov has been a longtime Blackhawks killer at the United Center.

It’ll be a very tough choice, indeed, for Bednar. Do you really want to take Grubauer out when he’s this hot? On the other hand, would playing him the next night be riding him a bit too hard?

“Well, it was early game (today). We get a little bit of (extra) rest there, and over there they are in the same situation,” Grubauer said. “We’ll see what’s gonna happen, and who’s gonna play.”

Grubauer’s play has to have Joe Sakic feeling a bit more validated right now than he was a few weeks ago. Sakic had to buy out the final year of Brooks Orpik’s contract ($4 million, spread out over two years), plus give up a second-round pick, to get him from Washington. He then signed Grubauer to a three-year contract with a cap hit of $3.33 million, only to see him have poor statistics entering February, with fans starting to call for Pavel Francouz to be called up from the Colorado Eagles.

You aren’t hearing that anymore.

“Everything for us right now is still a Game 7,” Grubauer said. “We’re still lucky to be where we are right now. We’ve just got to keep playing it simple. If we do, we set ourselves up for a really good chance at the playoffs.”

OTHER TAKEAWAYS AND OBSERVATIONS

• Gabe Landeskog, who has been out 18 days now with a bad shoulder, did a lot of puck-handling earlier in the day. He was listed as out 4-6 weeks at the time of the injury. I asked Bednar if he might come back sooner than four week. Bednar said yes, he might. I am gonna go out on a limb and say Landy is back for next Friday’s big home game with Arizona.
• Colin Wilson picked a good time to play one of his best games as an Av. He not only scored that big 5-on-3 goal, but he assisted on Andrighetto’s goal too.
• I thought the Avs just looked like the harder-working team today. Chicago was pretty good puck-possession-wise, but I thought the Avs won the races to the loose pucks and played a bit hungrier around the net.
• Who do I think will start in goal Sunday? I think it’ll be Varly. But, man, Bednar will face some fierce second-guessing if he goes out and has a clunker. We’ll see. It’s just my hunch on this one that he’ll start. I think Bednar will worry about Gruby being a little worn out, but we’ll see.

NOTES AND QUOTES FROM AVS PR

The Avs are now 2-1-1 against the Blackhawks this campaign with one game remaining in the season series, tomorrow evening at United Center. This is the first home-and-home, back-to -ack set for the Avalanche since Dec. 16-17, 2013 against Dallas (excluding the two games against Ottawa in Sweden in 2017).
The Avs have won four straight games and are 11-5-1 over their last 17 outings. Colorado is 7-2-1 in its last 10 contests at Pepsi Center.
The Avalanche has now won six of its last seven (6-1-0) games against Central Division opponents.
The Avs scored twice in the third period and have now lit the lamp 98 times in the final frame this season, a new single-season Avalanche record (since 1995-96) for third-period scoring (1996-97, 96 goals).
The Avalanche played the last of its six afternoon contests at Pepsi Center, finishing 4-2-0.
INDIVIDUAL NOTES
Colin Wilson extended his point streak to a season-long three games. He registered his fourth multi-point game of the season (first since Nov. 2 at Vancouver) and now has four points (1g, 3a) over his last three games.
Nathan MacKinnon finished with five shots to bring his total to 336 this season, the second-most in a single season in franchise history (Joe Sakic, 339), surpassing Sakic’s 332 shots in 2000-01 to move into second place.
Alexander Kerfoot registered his 10th multi-point game of the season.
He now has a career-high 25 assists this season, surpassing his previous high of 24 from his rookie campaign in 2017-18.

Sven Andrighetto scored his first game-winning goal of the season and the third of his career. He has registered four points (2g, 2a) over his last five games.
Samuel Girard has registered at least a point in consecutive outings and has three points (0g, 3a) in his last two games. He now has 24 points this season, surpassing his rookie season total (23) from 2017-18.
Philipp Grubauer has won his last four starts and is 6-2-0 in his last nine games (eight starts), posting a 1.00 goals-against average and a .968 save percentage over that span and three shutouts.
J.T. Compher finished with a goal and leads the Avalanche with five points (4g, 1a) against Chicago this season.
QUOTES
Colorado LW J.T. Compher
On The Team’s Effort: “It’s been a full team effort when those guys (Colorado RW Mikko Rantanen and LW Gabriel Landeskog) haven’t been in the lineup and that’s what we need. We need everybody stepping up in these big games. We’ve checked well and because we are playing such good defense, it’s leading to offense.”
On The Team’s Confidence Fighting For A Playoff Spot: “Most of this group went through the same thing last year. We were fighting for a playoff spot for the last month or two. We know what it takes and this past week, putting together games that are good enough to get two points and get wins.”
Colorado RW Alexander Kerfoot
On The Team’s Performance As Of Late: “We just came back from Minnesota, Dallas and won both of those games – those are pretty hostile environments. So, I think we’re playing well at home, we’re playing well on the road, so everything is going our way right now.”
On Colorado C Colin Wilson’s Power-Play Goal: “It’s a 5-on-3 so there’s a lot of room out there. I thought that we had a couple of really good looks before that. Obviously, Nate (Colorado C Nathan MacKinnon) hit the crossbar and then they got kind of a lucky bounce when we had a wide-open net earlier. Yeah, 5-on-3 guys are going to be open and he was open in front of the net and I just tried to feather it in there and he made a great play to finish it.”
Colorado C Colin Wilson
On The Playoff-Like Atmosphere: “They are the most fun. It had a playoff atmosphere to it, both teams. It was a big two points. Yeah, they are the most fun to play in.”
On His Goal: “It was nice that it finally went in. Honestly, I wasn’t gripping the stick too hard and it was a nice play by Kerf (Colorado RW Alexander Kerfoot). Hopefully, they start flowing in from here.”

Chicago D Duncan Keith
On Today’s Game: “Close game the whole way, just kind of comes down to a very fine line. They got that 5-on-3 in the second and it comes down to a couple of plays and at the end of the day, we can’t make any excuses. We’ve got to do a better job and find a way to get it done tomorrow.”
On The Back-To-Back: “Just come out and give it everything we have. Obviously tonight wasn’t enough. We need to just find a way to get that first one and get the momentum and try to keep it. Play tight, stingy defense where we’re not giving up much, we’re keeping it simple and sometimes penalties, they’re accidents and that’s going to happen sometimes. We’ve got to get those kills but try to stay out of the box too and all the little things that make the difference.”
Chicago G Corey Crawford
On Today’s Game: “I think we played pretty well. They get a 5-on-3 and it’s hard when you get scored on 5-on-3, I mean that makes a big difference in the game. It’s tough to take a penalty like that. We made some good stops, Seabs (Chicago D Brent Seabrook) big block on (Colorado C Nathan) MacKinnon. Got lucky off the post and Duncs (Chicago D Duncan Keith) stopped one. It was just one chance after the other and I thought we played really well, kind of got unlucky with a squeaker in front of the net. We played pretty solid for the most part. Obviously, it’s still not good enough. We’ve got to bring a little bit more but I thought we were actually not too bad. Had a chance late and kind of lose it right there as we’re getting another guy on the ice, but it was a pretty close game.”
On The Avalanche’s Third Goal: “I was just trying to get an understanding for what the rule is because it didn’t go off his stick. I think it hit his (Colorado RW Sven Andrighetto) hand or his arm so I just wasn’t sure what the rule was on that. If he’s deflecting it and using his arm or his stick, but I don’t think it matters if it’s towards the net and a sort of deflection play like that.”