The Colorado Avalanche played solid in front of their netminder to earn a 3-0 shutout win over the Vegas Golden Knights.
Valeri Nichushkin scored two goals and got help from Mikko Rantanen on both but the star of the game was goaltender Alexandar Georgiev.
The 27-year-old Bulgaria native made 25 saves and earned his second shutout of the season — 15th of his career — in the 3-0 win over the Vegas Golden Knights. But he credited his team for the victory.
"We have great defensemen, great forwards. Everybody's contributing and believing in each other so great for us that we play as a team no matter who's in the lineup.
"Definitely trying to build on it (game-winning mentality) and get some confidence from the previous win. Now we can beat good teams, reset and get going again," Georgiev said after the win.
Head coach Jared Bednar praised his goaltender's performance and said the importance of his effort makes the difference between winning and losing games.
"Perfect game for me because we did a nice job on the checking. You're never going to go through the game with zero scoring chances against and you're going to have, against good teams, they're going to earn a couple of grade A chances.
"This is exactly how I want our team to be. I don't want us giving up a lot of chances. And when we have a big breakdown, we need our goalie to make a save. It's a difference between winning and losing and tonight he was perfect in that regard. And Boston game was really good game, you know? So yeah, when our team's playing the right way he gives us a chance to win every night," Bednar said.
It was another full team effort from the Avalanche despite missing some key players in the lineup. Andrew Cogliano contributed the success to the team as a whole staying within its structure.
"Just seems like we're really buying into the game plan in terms of our structure and our checking game — from the first line to the fourth line, it seems like everyone's just making a contribution on that side of it," Cogliano said. "We have some of the best players in the world and it seems like they're on another level as well and seems like they're pushing the whole team to play better with guys out. I don't think you could play a better game against that team ... but obviously it shows our structure and our game plan when we play to the best we can, we win games no matter who we play."
The Avalanche netted a goal each period with Nichushkin's first coming on the power play with 14 seconds left in the opening frame. Jonathan Drouin earned his 22nd point with the secondary assist.
Nathan MacKinnon assisted on Nichushkin's second goal, also on the power play, 11:44 into the middle frame. With that point, the 28-year-old forward tied Joe Sakic for the franchise's longest home point streak at 23 games.
Jan 10, 2024; Denver, Colorado, USA; Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon (29) skates past Vegas Golden Knights center Paul Cotter (43) in the second period at Ball Arena.The team's leaders have boosted that winning mentality and helped create chemistry throughout the lineup.
"We have a close group here. We have a team that knows what our end goal is, and it's going to be ups and downs through the season and veteran guys do a good job in our room that just keep things even keel," Cogliano said. "We'll continue to push and continue to build on what we're doing. It's a long season but we have a lot of experience here and I think we've been leaning on that as of late and it's been good."
Logan O'Connor scored the third goal at 10:40 in the final period with a shot straight down the lane. The puck hit the stick of Vegas' Nicolas Hague and got past goaltender Jiri Patera's glove side. O'Connor said it was an overall team effort to earn the two points.
"I thought we did a great job, I think that was a pretty complete 60 minutes," O'Connor said. "Power play came up huge when we needed them, penalty kill was good, Georgie (Georgiev) was great when we needed him. I thought everyone was contributing in different ways."
The Avalanche lost 7-0 to Vegas on Nov. 4 and play them again for their second to last game of he season on April 14.
Colorado will embark on a five-game road trip through Canada and the northeast before heading back home. The team will face the Toronto Maple Leafs next on Jan. 13.