In Denver, the Avalanche’s Alexandar Georgiev made 26 saves through overtime on Monday night, and did not surrender a goal in the skills competition for a 1-0 win over the New York Islanders.
“You try to be in the moment,” Georgiev said. “It’s kind of in the back of your mind, the score, but you try to play every moment like it’s the most important one, and you never know when the game can turn. It’s special. Definitely feels awesome. I’m going enjoy it today and get back to work tomorrow.”
Evan Rodrigues had the only goal in the game, in the fist round of penalties.
“I kind of had the plan in my head that that’s what I was going to do, and then when I skated in, it looked like he was giving me a lot of blocker,” Rodrigues said. “So, I thought if I pulled it, he would really push hard and try to get to the other side. It almost felt like he was baiting me into it, so just once I pulled it, I knew I could try to get that cutback, and it worked out for me.
“I feel like I have good deception and good hands, and I feel like if I sell it hard enough, I can kind of get a goalie to bite. And it’s worked out for me.”
The Avs improved to 17-11-2.
“I loved the commitment in our game tonight,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “I thought the guys were checking hard, got better as the game went on, and I thought both goalies were really good tonight. To play with that type of commitment on the defensive side of things and manage the puck properly, I thought the guys did a really nice job tonight.
“You kind of got the feeling as it went on, the way both goalies were playing, that the first goal would probably be the difference-maker tonight.”
New York dropped to 18-13-2.
Ilya Sorokin made 46 saves for his third shutout of the season.
“[Sorokin] played great. It was good to see,” New York coach Lane Lambert said. “He fought through traffic, fought through deflections, things like that. He was outstanding. I thought we battled. We battled hard. It’s a good point for us to have.”
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