WINNIPEG — The Colorado Avalanche did not make it to Game 2 of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs before goaltending became the dominant storyline.
Alexandar Georgiev allowed seven goals on 23 shots, and a fast start by Colorado quickly faded under the weight of an avalanche of goals against in a 7-6 defeat Sunday night at Canada Life Centre.
Adam Lowry and Kyle Connor both scored twice, with all four goals coming after a wild first period, to help the Winnipeg Jets secure Game 1 of this best-of-seven Western Conference opening-round series. Game 2 is here Tuesday night.
“I’ll watch the video to check it out and analyze,” Georgiev said. “I feel eventually it is going to come. They scored some really good goals, a couple lucky ones. You have to stay positive and try to find out what happened today and move forward. It’s only 1-0 in the series so I’m looking forward to the next game.”
The Jets scored on their third shot on goal in the first period, second shot on goal in the second and first time getting one on net in the third. Georgiev had allowed four or more goals six times in his final eight appearances in the regular season, but Avs coach Jared Bednar never wavered on who his starter for Game 1 would be.
While the Avs did make mistakes just before some of the goals against, Colorado created 3.99 expected goals and allowed 1.96, according to Natural Stat Trick.
“(Georgiev) probably needed to be better, right?” Bednar said. “I thought we played well, we created some chances. He made some good saves, but we’re gonna need like a couple more saves than that probably to win.”
The other option, backup Justus Annunen, did not dress for Game 1 (illness). Arvid Holm, who has zero games of NHL experience, dressed in his place. Bednar said he’s not sure if Annunen will be healthy for Game 2.
Colorado scored six times on 46 shots against the presumptive Vezina Trophy winner, Connor Hellebuyck, as the NHL’s best goaltender this season, and it didn’t matter. Cale Makar had a goal and two assists for the Avalanche.
“We were up at certain times in the game and then we kind of (made) a couple mistakes and they’re right back in it,” Makar said. “They’re a team that’s going to capitalize on all those little things, so for us, it’s just cleaning those up and making sure this next game we dial that in a little bit.”
Lowry put the Jets in front with the lone goal of the second period. Devon Toews took away his passing option on a 2-on-1, but Lowry slid the puck through Georgiev’s legs along the ice for Winnipeg’s fourth goal in just 10 shots to that point, 8:57 into the middle period.
The middle period had plenty of physical play but looked a little more like what everyone might have expected. It came after a wild, chaotic opening 20 minutes that featured six goals, including three in 66 seconds.
Lowry made it 5-3 early in the third. The puck hit the left post, the right post and then barely rotated its way across the line on the way back. It was ruled no goal during play, but a quick review overturned it.
Connor scored on the power play to make it 6-3 and again after an Artturi Lehkonen goal to make it 7-4 before a couple of late tallies from the Avs that were not enough to overcome the issues.
“What a hockey game, right?,” Jets defenseman Brenden Dillon said. “We were riding the same rollercoaster everybody else was there. Crazy.”
The Avs got off to an extremely fast start, dictating play for most of the opening eight minutes. Colorado had 11 of the first 12 shots on goal, and Valeri Nichushkin solved Hellebuyck with No. 11.
Josh Morrissey evened the score at 8:02 on a shot from near the blue line through traffic. Josh Manson made the first big mistake for the Avs a few minutes later, and Winnipeg quickly took the lead. Alex Iafallo deflected his outlet pass right to Vladislav Namestnikov for a goal at 11:57.
Colorado struck back with goals on back-to-back shifts from Miles Wood and Nathan MacKinnon. If the Avs had any designs of settling into playing with a lead, the Jets erased them less than 50 seconds later on a Mark Scheifele goal at 15:53.
At that point, the Avs had a goal from three different lines, had proven Hellebuyck was mortal and controlled play for much of the period. But the other dressing room had to feel a lot better about a 3-3 score after 20 minutes.
Canada Life Centre was certainly ready for the start of the playoffs. Winnipeg’s famous Whiteout crowd did not disappoint, both inside the arena and the thousands who watched from the party outside.
Who will lead the Avalanche out onto the ice in front of them Tuesday night will certainly be a topic of discussion here and back in Denver for the next two days.
“I’m not going to speculate,” Bednar said.
