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Need stellar effort from Varlamov

January 9, 2019, 4:16 PM ET [3 Comments]
Rick Sadowski
Colorado Avalanche Blogger •Avalanche Insider • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Semyon Varlamov will be in goal Wednesday when the Avalanche play in Calgary, and I guess he can’t be much worse than Philipp Grubauer was Tuesday in a 7-4 loss in Winnipeg.

The GAME NOTES.

The Avalanche made too many bonehead defensive plays, the penalty killing continues to be a major problem, and Grubauer only managed to stop 14 of 20 shots before the Jets scored into an empty net to end it.

Grubauer has allowed at least four goals in his past eight games and was given the hook in two of them.

The Avalanche are 1-5-2 in the past eight games while the Flames are 5-1-1 in their past seven and have scored at least four goals in four of their past five.

Calgary came from behind to defeat the Avalanche in the two previous meetings. The Flames erased a 2-0 deficit for a 3-2 overtime win Oct. 13 in Denver and turned a 4-1 deficit into a 6-5 win on Nov. 1 at home.

The Flames lead the Western Conference with 58 points in 44 games.

The Avalanche are barely hanging onto a playoff spot with 48 points in 43 games; they have the first wild card, three points ahead of second wild card Minnesota and three in front of ninth-place Anaheim.

The Avalanche outshot the Jets 41-21 but allowed three power-play goals in four shorthanded situations after killing off all three of their penalties Friday against the New York Rangers.

They’ve allowed four or more goals in nine of the past 16 games, permitting a whopping 18 power-play goals, while going 4-9-3.

“You can't hand good teams -- Calgary, Winnipeg, doesn't matter who it is -- you can't hand good teams goals," coach Jared Bednar said.

*****

Gabriel Landeskog scored twice, giving him a career-high 27 goals … Nathan MacKinnon has 10 points (four goals, six assists) in a seven-game point streak … Tyson Barrie has eight points (one goal, seven assists) in a five-game streak … Ryan Graves has a goal in each of the past two games.

*****

The lineup:

Gabriel Landeskog -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Mikko Rantanen
Tyson Jost -- Alexander Kerfoot -- J.T. Compher
Matt Nieto -- Carl Soderberg -- Matt Calvert
Gabriel Bourque or Sven Andrighetto – Sheldon Dries -- Logan O’Connor

Samuel Girard -- Erik Johnson
Ian Cole -- Tyson Barrie
Ryan Graves -- Patrik Nemeth

Semyon Varlamov
Philipp Grubauer



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