Grubauer steals overtime win from Vegas, fellow Vezina finalist Fleury

Two of the NHL’s three Vezina Trophy nominees for the season’s top goaltender put on a show in Wednesday’s Game 2 quarterfinal between the Avalanche and the Golden Knights. Vegas’ Marc-Andre Fleury — the league’s third-winningest goalie in history — was solid, stopping 22 Avalanche shots, but Colorado’s Philipp Grubauer was spectacular, saving 39-of-41 shots to steal a victory that the Avs might not have completely deserved.

The visiting Golden Knights dominated play from the first intermission on, outshooting, out-hitting and generally outplaying the Avalanche in every way… but the Avalanche had Grubauer.

“He was unbelievable,” Brandon Saad, who had the game’s opening goal, said. “It’s something; we aren’t going to get to that point of the game if he wasn’t in net, so he did a great job back there. We didn’t have our best night in front of him. But he made some huge key saves for us, made some momentum swings.”

Peppered all game long and needing to kill a penalty in the game’s final regulation minutes, Grubauer “stood on his head” in hockey parlance, efficiently cutting off angles and springing across the net when needed, keeping the Avalanche in the game until Mikko Rantanen’s overtime, power-play game-winner paid the man they call “Grubi” back for the night’s hard work.

“I doesn’t matter if I face 40, 50 or just 10 shots, the approach is always the same. I never change anything,” Grubauer said. “[I] got a little bit more than usual, but I won’t complain.”

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NEXT UP: Game 3, Avalanche at Golden Knights (Avalanche lead series, 2-0) | Friday, Jun. 4 at 8:00 p.m. | TV: NBCSN

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NOTES

• Mikko Rantanen’s game-winning, overtime goal extended his playoff point streak to 16 over the last two postseasons, tying Mike Bossy, Pavel Bure and Bobby Orr, and trailing Wayne Gretzky’s three separate streaks of 18 games for fourth place in NHL history. Rantanen has 10 points (three goals, seven assists) in the Avalanche’s six playoff games this season.

• Brandon Saad scored a goal for his fifth straight game; a changeup when Vegas goalie Marc-Andre Fleury was expecting a fastball. Saad’s partial breakaway was disrupted close to the Golden Knights’ net, and the puck’s momentum carried it right between Fleury’s legs. Saad’s five-game streak trails only Claude Lemieux and Joe Sakic’s team record of seven. “He’s a guy that’s performed in big moments his whole career and seems to get better as the season goes on,” said head coach Jared Bednar. “He’s finding a way to get on the scoresheet every night, late in the season and in the playoffs, and scoring big goals for us.”

• Philipp Grubauer has won 10 straight playoff starts spanning the last two seasons. The only players ahead of him are a virtual ‘Who’s Who’ in the Hockey Hall of Fame: Gump Worsley (16), Tom Barrasso (14), Patrick Roy, Ed Belfour, Ken Dryden, Gerry Cheevers and Jacques Plante (11).

• The Avalanche have won their last 13 straight games at Ball Arena, including all four in the playoffs; they’re the only undefeated team at home left in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

• With two more power-play goals on Wednesday, Colorado’s power-play success rate is now 43.5 percent (10-for-23) in the playoffs, by far the best rate in the NHL.

• So much for that President’s Trophy curse. The Avalanche became the third winner since 1985-86 to win their first six games to start their playoff run.

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THE FINAL WORD

“I thought his performance was exceptional. Just seemed to me like we didn’t execute very well, and the puck was bouncing around a lot tonight. We needed ‘Grubi’ in a big way tonight, and he showed up for us.” — Head coach Jared Bednar, on goaltender Philipp Grubauer.

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LAST NIGHT’S LINES

FORWARDS
Top Line: LW Gabriel Landeskog, C Nathan MacKinnon, RW Mikko Rantanen
Second Line: LW Brandon Saad, C Tyson Jost, LW Valeri Nichushkin
Third Line: LW Andre Burakovsky, C J.T. Compher, RW Joonas Donskoi
Fourth Line: LW Sampo Ranta, C Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, RW Alex Newhook

DEFENSEMEN
Top Pair: LD Devon Toews, RD Cale Makar
Second Pair: LD Samuel Girard, RD Ryan Graves
Third Pair: LD Patrik Nemeth, RD Conor Timmins

GOALTENDER
Starter: Philipp Grubauer

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INJURY WATCH

• Bowen Byram (upper-body injury) has been out since March 24, but is “an option whenever we want to use him,” according to head coach Jared Bednar on May 19.
• Logan O’Connor (lower-body injury) was placed on injured reserve on Apr. 2. He has had surgery, and may be able to return at some point in the postseason.
• Matt Calvert (upper-body injury) missed the Mar. 31 game and was placed on the injured reserve list on Apr. 11.
• Dennis Gilbert (facial injury, COVID-19 protocol) was placed on injured reserve on Feb. 20. He is expected to be out until at least late March.
• Erik Johnson (upper-body injury) left the Jan. 30 game and has no projected return date. On March 25, coach Jared Bednar suggested that it was possible that Johnson could miss the remainder of the season.
• Pavel Francouz (hip) has yet to play this season and remains on injured reserve. On Apr. 12, the Avalanche ruled him out for the rest of the season following hip surgery.

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Shawn Drotar is the host of “The Fan Late Night with Shawn Drotar;” weeknights from 10:00 p.m. to midnight — only on 104.3 The Fan

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