It’s hard to say when exactly Alexandar Georgiev truly began to capture some hearts and change minds on Tuesday night.
It might have been the second half of the second period; that’s when the Colorado Avalanche, for the first time in their first-round Stanley Cup playoff series against the Winnipeg Jets, managed to hold on to the lead for more than, oh, two approximately minutes. Maybe it was when the Avs went into the locker room with a 4-2 lead with 20 minutes left.
It was perhaps midway through the third period when a series of saves from the Avalanche’s beleaguered starting goalie preserved their two-goal margin. Maybe it was when the buzzer sounded after their 5-2 win. Maybe that didn’t happen until the Avs reached their Canada Life Center locker room, tied the Jets 1-1 and headed to Denver.
But at some point it should have happened. If you were watching, you should have realized that Colorado — after a 7-6 Game 1 loss in which we all talked about not only all those goals, but at least one of the guys who allowed them — had made things clear. , thanks in part to… well, that same guy.
Georgiev, indeed, was the story of Game 2, stopping 28 of 30 shots, improving as the game progressed and providing a lesson in how quickly things can change in the playoffs – series in series, from match to match, from period to period, from moment to moment. The story doesn’t always hold up. The facts don’t always cooperate. Alexandar Georgiev, for one night and more, was not a problem for the Colorado Avalanche. He was, in direct opposition to how he played in the first game, a solution. How could we consider it anything else?
He made a few big saves, and most of them came midway through the third period, with his team leading 4-2. He was there with 12:44 to play, stopping a puck that had awkwardly rolled off Nino Niederreiter’s stick; two posts missed by the Avs at the other end of the field had helped Niederreiter escape. Game 1 Georgiev does not make this save.
There he was, stopping Nikolaj Ehlers from the circle a few minutes later. There was no Avs defender within five feet, and there was nothing awkward about the puck Ehlers fired over his shoulder. Game 1 Georgiev is scored twice.
(It might have been poetic justice. It was Ehlers who put the first puck of the night on Georgiev – a blast from center ice that he stopped and the Winnipeg crowd greeted with the old mocking cheer . Oops. .)
At the end of it all, Georgiev had looked at Connor Hellebuyck and won, saving nearly 0.5 more goals than expected according to Natural Stat Trick, giving the Avalanche exactly what they needed and looking almost nothing like the guy we had seen a few days. Before. The conventional wisdom in this series was twofold: that the Avs have firepower, high-end talent and an overall advantage – however slight – over Winnipeg, and that Georgiev is fragile enough to destroy it all.
It wasn’t without merit either. Georgiev’s .897 save percentage in the regular season was six percentage points below the league average, and he didn’t break even in expected goals against (minus-0.21). He had been even worse down the stretch, posting an .856 save percentage in his last eight appearances, and even worse in Game 1, allowing seven goals on 23 shots and more than five more goals than expected . Not bad; it’s an oil spill. To dismiss it would have been understandable. Tossing out Jared Bednar for throwing it in Game 2 would have been understandable. Eradicating the Avs – for all the greatness of Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar – would have been understandable.
It just wouldn’t have been right.
The fact that all of this has happened now, four days into a two-month ordeal, is a gift — because the playoffs thus far have been few in surprises, almost as a rule. The Rangers and Oilers dominate the Capitals and Kings. The Hurricanes are half done with the Islanders. The Canucks are battling the Predators. Panthers – Lightning is tight, but one team is clearly better than the other. Bruins-Maple Leafs is a close matchup with psychic baggage we don’t have time to unpack. In Golden Knights – Stars, Mark Stone came back and scored a huge goal.
None of this should shock you. None of this should make you blink.
Is Georgiev good enough for Colorado, though? After what we saw in the first game? Strange, surprising and completely true. For the moment.
(Photo of Josh Manson congratulating Alexandar Georgiev after the Avs’ Game 2 win: Darcy Finley/NHLI via Getty Images)