Scott Wedgewood wasn’t going to allow the Avalanche to head into the holiday break on Tuesday with anything less than two points in the standings. The Avs didn’t have their best game, but the goaltender played out of his mind, making 32 saves to help lift Colorado to a 1-0 victory over the Utah Mammoth at Ball Arena.
Samuel Girard scored Colorado’s lone tally in the second period, and the Avs increased their home winning streak to 13 games. Jared Bednar’s club is 15-0-2 at home and 27-2-7 overall heading into the break.
They hold the No. 1 spot in the league and, with two games in hand, are still five points up on second-place Dallas. Even if it was a sloppy game that started strong, but didn’t look that way for most of the middle part.
“I think it says a lot about the maturity of our group and the focus of our group to be able to understand it, you recognize it, and then change it so we have a better third period,” Bednar said. “We’re able to win the hockey game, instead of letting it get away from us.”
There was no shortage of huge plays from the goalie in this one. With the game scoreless for almost 28 minutes, Wedgewood had two breakaway saves and two other high-danger stops to keep the Mammoth from getting the first goal.
Finally, Girard was able to make it 1-0 off an incredible individual performance. The Mammoth were attempting a rush up the ice and sent a pass to Clayton Keller along the boards. Keller tried to play give-and-go with his teammate but Girard picked it off and went in all alone with Keller tracking behind him.
Girard went to the backhand and put it bar down into the net behind goalie Vitek Vanecek. His second goal and sixth point in the last six games was a game changer.
“I saw a lot of times where he’s jumping up and so I kind of stayed back and let him do his thing,” Girard’s defense partner Sam Malinski said. “He just moves so well on the ice.”
Following the tally, Wedgewood continued to play his role in securing the win. The Avalanche weren’t as responsible with the puck in this one as they were against the Minnesota Wild two nights earlier. It led to several rushes into their zone with Utah gaining numbers on the attack.
Wedgewood stopped Daniil But on the doorstep with 9:12 remaining. And after an unsuccessful Avs power play, Keller came out of the box and went in on a breakaway with 4:45 remaining, but Wedgewood made a big save.
“He was the best player on the ice for either team. There’s no question,” Bednar said. “Like the second period, I’d say we got away from it, we created some of our own issues.”
Wedgewood, while tracking back in his crease, gloved the puck and managed to barely keep it outside of the goal despite sitting behind the goal line when the whistle blew. The call on the ice was no goal, but the officials took a second look because of a league-initiated review. It was confirmed that Wedgewood had kept it out.
But perhaps it was his dark blue pads that helped make it a tough call to overturn. The puck wasn’t clearly visible in the glove.
“Watching the replays that they showed us and other different cameras, I felt pretty confident that I kept it out,” Wedgewood said. “And maybe the dark gear helped me a little bit.”
Added Bednar: “You gotta be able to see it in. You need the overhead cam to do that, and it’s pretty hard to see it in if it’s in his glove, right? I was pretty confident that it wasn’t going to count, just because you have to have definitive proof that it crossed the line, and I think it’s very hard to get that, especially with a dark glove, dark puck.”
The majority of the opportunities in the third period belonged to the Mammoth. They continued to test Wedgewood, and had a 12-4 shot advantage but still could not find the back of the net. On one play, Wedgewood made a save, and Nichushkin got his stick on the rebound by the post before the Mammoth could get to it.
When Utah pulled its netminder late, the chances were there, but Wedgewood and the Avs’ defending secured the win.
Dylan Guenther and Keller had five shots each for the Mammoth. Colorado was 0-for-2 on the power play but a perfect 3-for-3 on the penalty kill. There were no penalties called in the third period.
Good: Girard’s Offensive Touch
In a game that didn’t have much offensive punch for the Avs, Girard stood out positively, at least in the first half of it.
Even before his goal, Girard looked like he was all over the ice, trying to pinch and get into scoring opportunities. In one of those plays, he blew a tire, and it sent Utah the other way on a 3-on-1, but Wedgewood was up to the task.
Eventually, he got his goal, and it was all Colorado needed. Girard has six points in his last six games and is looking more comfortable with each game. You have to imagine the start of the season wasn’t easy, given that he missed all of training camp and most of the preseason before returning.
Then he played just three games to start the year before going down with an injury.
Bad: Quiet night for MacKinnon
It’s been a while since we’ve seen a performance like this from superstar center Nathan MacKinnon. He wasn’t much of a factor. MacKinnon started the night with Gabe Landeskog and Martin Necas as his wingers, but ended with another change.
Valeri Nichushkin, who has spent most of the season on the second line, swapped places with Necas in an attempt to spark the top six in the later stages. Aside from Necas’ breakaway that hit the crossbar late in the first period, there wasn’t much going on offensively from the top of the lineup in general.
Landeskog had a team-high five shots on goal.
MacKinnon finished with one shot in 21:45 of ice time.
He remains second in the league in points, but is now six back of Connor McDavid after a five-assist night for the Edmonton Oilers captain against Calgary on Tuesday.
