The Colorado Avalanche went nearly 90 minutes without a goal before scoring five in a span of less than 10 minutes.
Colorado hung on to win, splitting its last two games because goaltender Alexandar Georgiev seems to have found his confidence.
Georgiev was pulled from his first two starts and appeared to have lost his grip on the No. 1 role, but he has turned it around. He will likely be in net Monday night in Denver when the Avalanche play the Nashville Predators in the second of a four-game homestand.
Georgiev was strong in a 1-0 loss at Winnipeg on Thursday night, and big saves in the first period against Carolina on Saturday night gave Colorado a chance to rally to a 6-4 win.
“I felt like that game could have got away from us in the first 10 minutes and it didn’t, and that was because of Georgie,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “He just gave our team a chance to come around. And that’s what we need from our goaltending.”
If Georgiev can keep performing, it bodes well for Colorado as it starts getting other players back. Miles Wood has been out two weeks with an upper-body injury but skated with the team on Sunday. Jonathan Drouin (upper body) hasn’t played since the opener but is trending towards a return and Bednar confirmed Sunday that Valeri Nichushkin, who has been suspended since last May, will be in the lineup Friday night against Washington.
The Avalanche have plugged holes to get through the beginning of the season, and it helps having Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar in the lineup. MacKinnon had four points in the win over the Hurricanes to move atop the scoring leaders, and Makar leads NHL defensemen with 24 points.
Despite their production, Colorado has a losing record.
“All you can do is have a great effort and we’ve been doing that. Probably Chicago, at home, was our last bad game. We’ve been playing really well. I think we deserve more wins than we’ve gotten,” MacKinnon said.
Nashville enters Monday night’s game having lost five of its last seven. One of the two wins came against the Avalanche on Nov. 2 and the other was Saturday night’s 4-0 win over the Utah Hockey Club.
Forward Jonathan Marchessault had a goal, just his third in 15 games, but he isn’t concerned about his low output.
“Sometimes it’s about getting chances, and I felt tonight I had a couple chances,” Marchessault said. “So that’s a positive. Score or don’t score, I think at the end of the day I just want scoring chances. That means I’m doing something good. And create chances for my teammates as well.”
The Predators have been streaky this season, just like Colorado. They lost their first five, then won three straight before this latest stretch.
Forsberg, who leads the team with eight goals, scored twice Saturday night.
“To see (Forsberg) be (Forsberg) and take over a game was really important for our group,” coach Andrew Brunette said.
–Field Level Media
