Bednar calls out Avalanche G Georgiev after allowing 7 goals in Game 1
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The Colorado Avalanche suffered a 7-6 loss in Game 1 of their first-round series against the Winnipeg Jets Sunday despite outshooting their opponents 46-23.
Avalanche goaltender Alexandar Georgiev finished with 16 saves, posting a save percentage of .696 in the loss.
“[Georgiev’s game] probably needed to be better, right?” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said post-game, per NHL.com. “I thought we played well; we created some chances. He made some good saves, but we’re [going to] need like a couple more saves than that probably to win, you know?
"But it is what it is. We’ll regroup. We made some mistakes in front of him that we’ll have to clean up and try to get the job done. It’s a team game.”
Georgiev posted a 38-18-5 record to lead the NHL wins in the regular season with a .897 save percentage and a 3.02 goals-against average. He made all seven starts for Colorado in the playoffs last season, posting .914 save percentage as the team was eliminated in Game 7 of the first round by the Seattle Kraken.
At the opposite end, Vezina Trophy favourite Connor Hellebuyck made 40 saves for the Jets, with head coach Rick Bowness pinning none of the goals allowed on his goaltender.
“You're not tagging any of those goals on [Hellebuyck],” Bowness said. "Some of them had seeing eyes, some of them were bouncing all over the place, some of them were just dead giveaways on our part. You're not hanging any of those on him. It could have been worse. Seriously. We don't give up that many chances. We don't give up that many shots. And Connor had to play better, and he made a lot of big saves at the right time, which he always does. I'm not hanging any of those goals on him."
Hellebuyck finished second in wins to Georgiev this season, going 37-19-4 with a .921 save percentage and a 2.39 GAA.
Game 2 will take place Tuesday in Winnipeg before the series heads to Colorado for Game 3 on Friday. The odds are likely against seeing another 13-goal contest, but the Jets are happy to hold a 1-0 lead after coming out on top in the high-scoring affair Sunday.
“Listen, we’ll never complain about a win, especially this time of year,” Bowness said. “It wasn’t exactly how we drew it up, but if that’s the way it goes, that’s the way it goes. Their top guys took over, our top guys took over. It was just the type of game that it evolved into, and you play it out and we found a way to get the win. So, we’ll take it.”