Youthful Avalanche pass first test without MacKinnon in win over Wild

“Week to week.”

That was coach Jared Bednar’s description of Nathan MacKinnon’s status prior to Tuesday night’s game against the Minnesota Wild. MacKinnon left Sunday’s game with what was termed a “lower-body injury,” and the Avalanche could be facing as many as a half-dozen games or more without their superstar center.

Though he’s hardly alone nursing injury — defensemen Erik Johnson and Devon Toews, along with forwards Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and Matt Calvert are all out with Bednar’s “week-to-week” diagnosis — it’s MacKinnon’s absence that will be most keenly felt. But it wasn’t on Tuesday night.

Behind a surprising performance by a newly-assembled line and solid goaltending by Philipp Grubauer, the Avalanche snuck past the Wild 2-1 and kept pace with the co-division-leading Vegas Golden Knights.

Bednar pushed the right buttons when he put Logan O’Connor and Kiefer Sherwood with Sheldon Dries, as O’Connor scored the game’s first goal, and his second in three games since being added to the roster. The teams traded goals in the second period, but Grubauer held firm in net, shutting out the Wild the rest of the way to earn his seventh win in nine tries.

“Grubi’s been incredible for us. He’s the backbone of our team,” said blueliner Cale Makar. “It gives us a lot of confidence playing in front of him. He plays consistent, night-in and night-out, and I think that just allows us to play our games as defensemen — and know that he’s going to make those saves when we need him to.”

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NEXT UP: Avalanche (7-3-1, 15 pts) vs. Minnesota (6-5-0, 12 pts) | Thursday, Feb. 4 at 7:00 p.m.

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TEAM NOTES

• Jared Bednar is apparently as sick of talking about the Avalanche’s injury situation as their fans are. Prior to Tuesday’s game, he told the media that no further updates were coming until next week. “What I would like to do is update everyone whenever my first meeting with the media is next week; I’ll field some more questions on the injured guys (then),” Bednar said. “Until then, I’ll just kind of give you that ‘week-to-week’ update.”

• The Avalanche have now won four straight games on the Ball Arena ice. The only game they’ve lost at home was the season opener, when they fell to the Blues, 4-1.

• While their penalty-kill streak ended at 24 on Tuesday, the Avs’ still lead the league at 89.7 percent. “I enjoy playing PK,” said Cale Makar. “If I can chip in, I will gladly do it whenever I’m needed. Obviously, all of us on the back-end are capable of doing it, but I’ll try and do my best when I’m out there — everybody’s power play is different, but being on the PK definitely allows you to see those open seams that you might not see just being on (the power play).”

• The makeshift line of Logan O’Connor, Kiefer Sherwood and Sheldon Dries — who was making his season debut — proved effective early on as O’Connor netted his second goal of the season off of assists from Sherwood and Cale Makar.

• After Thursday’s game ends the four-game series with the Wild, the two teams will only meet four more times this season. Their next matchup won’t come until Mar. 18.

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PLAYER NOTES

• J.T. Compher’s unsportsmanlike penalty in the second led to Minnesota’s only goal, but coach Jared Bednar wasn’t complaining. After the Wild’s Kyle Rau rammed Cale Makar into the boards, Compher, protecting the Avs’ star defenseman, scuffled with Rau moments afterward. After the game, Bednar defended Compher’s actions. “All day long. I thought they should have had the extra (penalty). I thought the hit (on Makar) was probably boarding or a charge. They don’t call it. We get the extra,” Bednar explained. “I think you’ve got to stick up for one another. You’ve got to police yourselves if the officials don’t. I was fine with the play, and I still am.”

• Philipp Grubauer has carried the Avs in net this season. After Tuesday’s win over the Wild, Grubauer’s record stands at 7-2-0 with a minuscule 1.67 goals-against average and a stellar 93.4 save percentage. The Avalanche have little choice but to keep running him out there; backup Hunter Miska is 0-1-1 and giving up an average of 3.55 goals per game. Grubauer’s seven wins leads the league.

• Joonas Donskoi doesn’t often find himself in the face-off circle, but he won his battle against Wild center Nick Bjugstad in the second period; muscling Bjugstad off the puck before nimbly passing to Valeri Nichushkin, who scored the eventual game-winner from the left side of the crease. Donskoi has taken only nine face-offs this season.

• Samuel Girard, at the ripe old age of 22, earned the assistant captain’s “A” on his sweater Tuesday night.

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THE FINAL WORD

“I thought the bottom-six guys did a great job — (Logan) O’Connor, (Kiefer) Sherwood, (Sheldon) Dries — played hard, simple, effective, tough to play against. They get us a goal, they draw us another penalty.” — Head coach Jared Bednar, on his revamped, youthful lines.

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INJURY WATCH

• Nathan MacKinnon (lower-body injury) left the Jan. 31 game. He is week-to-week.

• Erik Johnson (upper-body injury) left the Jan. 30 game and is week-to-week.

• Pierre-Edouard Bellemare (undisclosed injury) left the Jan. 29 game and is week-to-week.

• Devon Toews (foot) last played on Jan. 28. He is considered week-to-week, but there is concern that the injury could be longer-term.

• Matt Calvert (concussion symptoms) has not played since Jan. 24. On Jan. 28, coach Jared Bednar said he will be cautious regarding his timetable for return.

• Pavel Francouz (lower-body injury) has yet to play this season and remains on injured reserve.

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LAST NIGHT’S LINES

FORWARDS
Top Line: F J.T. Compher, F Gabriel Landeskog, F Mikko Rantanen
Second Line: C Nazem Kadri, F Andre Burakovsky, F Brandon Saad
Third Line: C Tyson Jost, F Joonas Donskoi, F Valeri Nichushkin
Fourth Line: C Sheldon Dries, F Logan O’Connor, Kiefer Sherwood

DEFENSEMEN
Top Pair: Bowen Byram, Cale Makar
Second Pair: Samuel Girard, Conor Timmins
Third Pair: Ryan Graves, Jacob McDonald

GOALTENDERS
Starter: Philipp Grubauer

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