It took just 55 seconds for a puck to sneak past on Thursday night, a weasel of a first shot that poked under his armpit off the stick of a Carolina shooter. It did nothing to dissuade the veteran Avalanche goaltender from reaching a record.
Varlamov dominated over the next 59 minutes, stopping 57 shots in the Avs’ 5-3 victory over the Hurricanes. The Russian set a career-high and an Avalanche regular season record — not since Ron Tugnutt stopped 70 shots for the Quebec Nordiques in 1991 at the Boston Garden against the Bruins has this franchise seen a three-period performance to match Varlamov’s output at the .
“He was phenomenal from start to finish,” Colorado coach said.
After a long, four-day layoff, the Avs also found the feel of another winning streak. Colorado (7-5-0), outworked in its own zone as Carolina put up 60 shots, won a second consecutive game and moved two games above .500 for the first time in more than a year. They are 5-1 in Denver.
Boxscore:
The last time the Avs were this far on the bright side of even, before this season, was Oct. 20, 2016, when a 4-0 win at Tampa Bay moved them to a 3-1 record. Two weeks later, they fell below .500 and never again had a winning record on their way to the worst mark in the NHL. Colorado began 4-1 this year before losing three straight.
“It’s always easy to play with a lead,” Varlamov said. After the early goal against him, he never saw another deficit.
Against a pesky Carolina team that keeps its form like a flock of geese, the Avs got goals from a second-line defenseman, Patrik Nemeth, and third-line forwards and , along with tallies from captain and . They picked apart Carolina goalie Cam Ward with a high success rate — five goals on just 27 shots.
Last week, Varlamov was on net in the Avs’ ugly 7-0 loss at Las Vegas against the expansion Golden Knights. “That was a tough game mentally,” he said. “There are no easy games in the NHL. You have to bounce back.”
Varlamov’s defense did him no favors. Before Carolina’s Derek Ryan mucked in a goal from in front of the net late in the second period, four Avs skaters stood in front of him with no muscle on the shooter. They did not check Ryan because three were facing the net.
Nemeth’s goal for Colorado midway through the first period gave Varlamov some breathing room. With the Avs’ fourth line on the ice, Nail Yakupov grinded the puck out from behind Carolina’s net, pushing a pass to Nemeth behind the right circle. His one-time slap shot flew right by Ward for a 2-1 lead.
But Anton Lindholm poked a weak clearing attempt from Colorado’s zone with less than five minutes remaining in the first and Canes winger Elias Lindhold slammed home a goal to tie the score. The Avs could not break free.
Until the second period, when Comeau, Landeskog and Rantanen scored within four minutes. The second two goals were keyed by a fight. Colorado’s A.J. Greer slammed Carolina’s Justin Faulk into the glass, head-first. No penalties came from the scrum. But the Avs were jazzed.
drove the net and Ward blocked his shot. Landeskog swooped in a rebound on their third try for a 4-2 lead. Carolina coach Bill Peters protested the goal, saying the sequence started offside, but his challenge failed and the Canes were penalized with a delay of game. It set up Rantanen’s easy tip-in goal off MacKinnon’s cross-ice pass. Like butter.
Through one month of what they hope is a turnaround season, the Avs have settled into a pattern in their victories: Score early and often, then bunker down behind Varlamov to weather a late barrage. It worked again, even if they skirted with danger.
They might not have the feel of a juggernaut, but the Avs are poking at success.
“Ultimately, it comes down to us getting to our game early and sticking with it,” Bednar said. “In the games that we’ve won, especially through the first 40 minutes, we’ve been really good. And if the other team poured it on a little bit, we did enough to survive when we defend a lead.”
