WASHINGTON — Two games ago, the Colorado Avalanche welcomed back three forwards against the Washington Capitals, but the performance was not the result or process they wanted.
Flash forward six days to Thursday night with a second crack at one of the best teams in the NHL, with their starting goalie back in the lineup, and the Avs looked more like the team they hope to be this season. Miles Wood scored early in the third period and Alexandar Georgiev made 28 saves to help the Avalanche defeat the Capitals, 2-1, at Capital One Arena.
The Avs are two games above .500 (11-9-0) for the first time this season, and they’ve won six of the past eight.
“Our team has found a little bit of a rhythm here recently,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “Hasn’t been perfect, that’s for sure. We needed (Georgiev) tonight, more than I would have liked, but we found a way to get a win as a team.”
The Avalanche took control of the play in the second period and was clearly on the front foot when Wood gave them the lead early in the period. After several Grade-A chances didn’t go in, Wood got a piece of a simple wrist shot by Cale Makar from the left point for his second goal of the season at 3:29 of the third.
That is the third goal in three games for a line with Wood, Parker Kelly and rookie Nikolai Kovalenko since they were put together.
“They’ve been really competitive,” Bednar said. “Their forecheck is rolling. They seem to find a way to chip in some real quality scoring chances on a nightly basis. They’ve been doing a nice job of focing teams into icings so we can put our top guys in some favorable matchups.”
Colorado’s power play didn’t look great on its first opportunity, but caught a lucky bounce on its second chance. Mikko Rantanen tried to send the puck through the middle of the Washington defense, but it went off Matt Roy’s skate and surprised the goaltender at 14:19 of the second period.
Colorado Avalanche right wing Mikko Rantanen (96) celebrates his goal with left wing Jonathan Drouin (27) during the second period of an NHL hockey game against the Washington Capitals, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
It was officially Rantanen’s team-leading 13th goal of the season. Jonathan Drouin, elevated to the top power-play unit for the first time since he was injured in the season opener, collected his second assist. Drouin and Wood were two of the three forwards, along with Valeri Nichushkin, who returned to the lineup last Friday in Denver in a 5-2 loss to these Capitals.
“It was better for sure, not perfect, but they’re a good team,” Rantanen said. “Hard to play a perfect game against them. (Georgiev) was great again. He made the saves we needed, especially a couple chances in the third (period), he was there.”
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Colorado controlled the play for a large portion of the second. The Avs could have easily had the lead, but Thompson made outstanding saves on Makar and Artturi Lehkonen on plays set up by Nathan MacKinnon to keep it to just a 1-1 score.
The last time the Avs played the Caps was the first time Colorado had its top-six forwards in the lineup together since the end of last regular season. Still, they were held to a combined six shots on goal in that game. Those six forwards had 13, including the Rantanen goal, Thursday night.
The Avs started the first period better than they have in games recently, but had only two shots on goal in the final 12 minutes and Washington grabbed the lead with 2:56 left. Both teams were overpassing at times, but the Capitals connected for an easy one when Tom Wilson found Pierre-Luc Dubois cutting to the net near the left post.
Washington scored three times in its first six shots the last time out against Colorado with Justus Annunen in net. He played better in Philadelphia, and Georgiev returned with one of his best performances of the season in this one.
Georgiev allowed 23 goals in his first six games of this season, but has yielded just 10 in his past five starts.
“Yeah, there are (some improvements),” Georgiev said. “I’m trying not to speak them out loud. Not jinx it, right? Just trying to build the confidence and give us a chance to win every night. That’s the important thing here.”
Ovechkin out: The Capitals were without captain Alex Ovechkin, who sustained a broken leg in their last game at Utah and is going to miss 4-6 weeks. Ovechkin leads the NHL with 15 goals — he had five in the two games before the injury. He also has 868 in his career, just 26 behind Wayne Gretzky for the all-time lead.
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