Avalanche forward Ryan Johansen has scored three goals in his last two games showcasing the improvement of his play as of late.
Alexandar Georgiev stopped 37 shots and Ryan Johansen had his second multi-goal game of the season in the 4-1 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning Monday night at Ball Arena.
Head coach Jared Bednar said Johansen was "chipping away slowly but surely" after the last game on Saturday against the Calgary Flames but it seems he's sped it up quite a bit.
"I mean that speed through the neutral zone, and him kind of getting up to speed with us and the whole line getting better at managing the puck and working as a connected group is helping," Bednar said about his second-line center. "It's all three new players playing on that line and it can take a little bit, especially for skilled guys to get to know each other's tendency. But I think it's coming, and they're doing a better job of it here recently and he's obviously a big part of that."
Johansen's game has clearly improved in the past few games — getting rewarded in the last two. He has scored six of his nine goals at home.
"Just going for me a little bit. It's a funny game. My whole career, it's always been assists — for whatever reason, I mean I know the reason — the guys around me," Johansen said. "Getting chances to score, it's great that they're going in right now."
Colorado's goaltending has only given up six goals in the last four games. Bednar mentioned the great play from his netminders in the last two games.
"He's given us some real good starts here recently. I think tonight's probably the best. That was an outstanding performance in goal," Bednar said about Georgiev after the win.
Cale Makar wristed the puck through the middle lane past Andrei Vasilevskiy to make it 3-0 for the Avalanche 3:35 into the second period. His assist on Johansen's second goal tied him with John-Michael Liles for most assists by a defenseman in franchise history at 207.
"Everybody's just working together. It's a full buy-in system right now and it's kind of what we're driven off of," Makar told reporters after the game.
Valeri Nichushkin extended his point-per-game streak to eight with an empty-netter at 3:14 in the third period to close out the win. Nathan MacKinnon's assist on the goal continued his home-point-scoring streak to 10 — as he has notched at least one point in every home game in November.