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CALGARY, Alberta — Jared Bednar’s choice of goaltender the last three games was never meant to stir speculation about a competition, nor was it a show of distrust in his starter.
Alexandar Georgiev’s Wednesday night in Calgary showed why: Back in net for the first time in a week, he saved 34 shots and kept the Flames scoreless through two periods in a 4-1 Avalanche win.
Missing three injured top defensemen, the latest of whom was Calgary hometown kid Cale Makar, Georgiev made a series of outstanding saves in the middle stanza to help Colorado (23-17-3) hold a 3-0 lead acquired in the first period. After losing seven of eight games, the Avs have suddenly jumped to 7-0, 5-0 and 3-0 leads on their last three opponents.
Artturi Lehkonen scored twice to take over as the team’s second-leading scorer (12 goals), and Mikko Rantanen scored twice to become the fastest player to 30 goals in a season in franchise history. He beat Joe Sakic’s record by one game with a one-timer that gave Colorado the lead for good. He confidently called for the pass from J.T. Compher.
Rantanen, Lehkonen and Nathan MacKinnon all had two points by first intermission. MacKinnon facilitated the second goal in a fascinating sequence. Evan Rodrigues lost a defensive-zone faceoff, but when Calgary tapped the puck back out toward the point, nobody was around to receive it. MacKinnon won the race to it and launched a 2-on-1 breakout. He slithered around Calgary defenseman Chris Tanev and passed across the crease to an inbound Lehkonen at the last second.
As Lehkonen’s stick touched the puck through Jacob Markstrom’s legs, he ran into the short-side post and tipped the opposite side of the net slightly off the ground. As that happened, the puck creeped along the goal line and under the elevated net, so it looked as though it had never crossed. MacKinnon spotted it instantly and announced that it was a goal.
That proved to be the game-winner as Georgiev held firm. Even after he endured Colorado’s long slump, his even-strength save percentage is over .930. He made a clutch third-period stop against Blake Coleman’s partial breakaway shortly after Calgary had gotten on the board with a power play goal. That would have made it 3-2 against an Avalanche team that had lost some of its aggressive steam by then.
The Flames outshot the Avs 13-3 in the third period before Rantanen’s second goal, a late empty-netter.
With Makar and Josh Manson watching from the press box, the Avalanche mixed blueliners often but played veteran defenseman Erik Johnson alongside Devon Toews on the first pairing. AHL All-Star Brad Hunt moved up to the second pairing with Sam Girard, and Jared Bednar stuck with a 11-forward, seven-defenseman lineup.
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