Georgiev Solid in Goal as Avalanche Bounce Back in Detroit, Defeat Red Wings 2-1

DETROIT — Through the first 27 games, the Avalanche have only led five times at the first intermission and won each time. They did both of those things on Saturday, defeating the Detroit Red Wings 2-0 at Little Caesars Arena.

The Avs hadn’t held a lead at the first intermission in 15 games. They scored the first goal and played with the lead the rest of the way.

“We keep talking about our starts and being ready to go,” head coach Jared Bednar said. “I had a good feeling about this one coming in.”

Valeri Nichushkin and Cale Makar scored for the Avs, who improved to 2-1-0 on the road trip and 15-13-0 overall in a game where many of their struggles seemingly were corrected, at least for a night.

Casey Mittelstadt’s eight-game pointless drought? It’s over. He had an assist on the Nichushkin goal.

Leading the league in first-period goals against? That’s still true but Detroit couldn’t get anything past Alexandar Georgiev in the first 20 minutes despite having at least two golden opportunities.

Speaking of Georgiev, could he bounce back from the meltdown in Buffalo? Absolutely. Georgiev was exceptional in the first period, and, despite the Avs getting outplayed at several parts of the game, he did his part to keep them ahead the entire way.

How about the struggling power play? One chance, one goal. That’s one of the perks that comes when you take on a laughably bad Detroit penalty kill, which operated at a 67.5% rate heading into the matchup against Colorado.

It wasn’t a perfect game by any means for the Avs — not even remotely. But against a team with three wins in its past 10 games, Bednar’s club needed to flex its talent and experience and have a remotely easy night. They accomplished that.

“Just having a good start was huge. Every team has a good approach against us in the first,” Georgiev said. “We tried to get on a good note here and managed to do that.”

Nichushkin got the scoring started for Colorado. He rushed into the Wings zone and fired it through goalie Ville Husso to make it 1-0. Nichushkin’s tally was his sixth of the season and third straight goal for the Avs after scoring twice late in Carolina two nights prior.

That was the only goal of the period but Detroit had its opportunities. Before the goal, Georgiev made a strong post-to-post save to stop Alex DeBrincat. Later in the period, Avs blueliner Calvin de Haan turned the puck over and it landed directly onto Jonatan Berggren’s stick in the slot. Georgiev stopped that one, too. He also had a nice shoulder pad save on J.T. Compher in the second period to keep the Avs ahead. And then, of course, he was excellent during the late flurry with the Wings’ goalie pulled.

Colorado eventually doubled its lead on its only power play. It took just 28 seconds for Makar, who wristed it from the point through traffic to make it 2-0. Both Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen had assists on the goal.

The Wings answered back late in the period — a deflection from Lucas Raymond off a shot from captain Dylan Larkin.

Good: Alexandar Georgiev

The roller coaster season continued for Georgiev. After his brutal showing in Buffalo to start the road trip, Georgiev was allowed to bounce back and made easy work against a struggling team. Albeit it wasn’t actually an easy night. The goalie was locked in from the onset. The highlight of his play came in the final moments of regulation when Georgiev needed to make at least four huge saves on the Wings’ 6-on-5 attack.

After the Carolina game, I wrote about Scott Wedgewood’s ability to just make a couple of big saves early to give the Avs a chance to score the first goal. It was a polar opposite of what the team had seen so many times from both Georgiev and Justus Annunen.

But Georgiev accomplished that. No matter how often the Avalanche have had poor defensive games, the goalie making a few saves early could really change the tune of a night. It didn’t against the Hurricanes but it certainly did against the Wings.

Bad: Shots on goal

This might be grasping at straws but it’s puzzling to see the Avs struggle to generate shots this often. Sure, the team has dealt with injury issues throughout the year but the top-end talent is still healthy and playing, and even they’re struggling at times. Are they being overplayed? Are they gassed? Maybe. But it’s nothing out of the ordinary for the ice time they’ve seen most of the past three seasons.

The Avalanche had 25 shots on goal on Saturday. Entering the game, they ranked 11th in the NHL, averaging 29.7 per game. While they’re still in the top half of the league, it’s still a step back from past seasons. Last year they were fifth (33 shots per game). In 2022-23, Colorado had 33.3 shots per game (eighth best). And in the Cup year, it was a whopping 35 shots per game, good for fourth in the league.

Again, it’s not the most alarming statistic, especially when you consider that shots are down all throughout the NHL. But it’s worth keeping an eye on. The 43 shot-performance they had at Buffalo was far more common in past years.