Instant reaction from the Avalanche’s 6-2 win over the Winnipeg Jets in Game 3 of their first-round Stanley Cup Playoffs series.
1. Stick in the face wakes Avs up: The Avs had knotted the game at 2-2 on a Nathan MacKinnon laser 2:11 into the third stanza when Winnipeg’s Gabriel Vilardi rearranged Devon Toews’ face. And woke up a sleeping giant. Vilardi hoisted his stick into Toews’ mug at the 2:37 mark, and a video review confirmed a double-minor for high-sticking. While Toews tasted blood, the Avs smelled it. The power-play puck cycled its way to Valeri Nichushkin for a great look from the left face-off dot, beating a sprawled-out Connor Hellebuyck for a 3-2 Avs lead. Avs fans raised the roof and crashed it on the Jets from there. A stitched-up Toews returned to the ice and garnered an assist on Artturi Lehkonen’s sweet breakaway goal for a 4-2 Colorado lead while Ross Colton’s tip from the crease put the game to bed four minutes later. The Avs’ scoring onslaught in the third was capped, poetically, by Toews, whose empty-net, shorthanded shovel made it 6-2 and poured salt into the Jets’ wounds.
2. Crowd rallies around Georgie: “GEOR-GIE! GEOR-GIE!” Avs goaltender Alexandar Georgiev heard his name chanted as a taunt in Manitoba, but it was said early — and often — with love on Friday night at Ball Arena. We counted at least five different chants for the mercurial netminder from pregame player intros to the end of the first period. Or almost as many ovations (five) as the goalie managed saves (eight) over the game’s first 20 minutes, including an amazing, full-belly flop of Vilardi’s wrister 3:47 into the contest. Per NaturalStatTrick.com, the Jets put two “high danger” chances in front of Georgiev and should’ve nabbed at least one goal for all their peppering. Not this time.
3. Parise on point: For the second straight game in the series, the Avs’ forecheck got veteran Zach Parise in the crease and on the board. The 39-year-old veteran winger cleaned up in a scramble situation in front of Hellebuyck, tapping the rebound past the netminder at the 11:18 mark of the first period to give the hosts a 1-0 lead. Parise’s goal was his second of the series, giving him scores in consecutive Stanley Cup Playoff games for the first time since April 2018, when he netted for the Minnesota Wild in Games 2 and 3 of their first-round series against Winnipeg.
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