Jared Bednar, the head coach of the Colorado Avalanche Colorado Avalanche, has publicly criticized goaltender Alexandar Georgiev after the team's 7-6 defeat to the Winnipeg Jets Winnipeg Jets in Game 1 on April 21.
Colorado scored first, then Winnipeg scored twice, and the Avs scored twice in less than 20 seconds to take a 3-2 lead, but the Jets tied the game 3-3 after the first period as the game was 3-3 after the first period.
The Avalanche couldn’t get timely stops from Georgiev who allowed seven goals. Georgiev only recorded 16 saves for a .696 save percentage , and Bednar says his goalie needs to perform better for them to win games.“(Georgiev) probably needed to be better, right? thought we played well, we created some chances. He made some good saves, but we’re (going to) need like a couple more saves than that probably to win, you know? But it is what it is. We’ll regroup. We made some mistakes in front of him that we’ll have to clean up and try to get the job done. It’s a team game,” Bednar
said following Colorado’s 7-6 loss on April 21 Georgiev has had his struggles all season, as he finished the year.
with a 3.02 GAA and a .897 save percentage . But, Bednar had no choice but to start Georgiev in Game 1, as Colorado’s other goalie, Justus Annunen was out with an illness.Winnipeg, meanwhile, was pleased with their goaltender Connor Hellrbuyck, despite allowing 6 goals.
“You’re not tagging any of those goals on (Hellebuyck). Some of them had seeing eyes, some of them were bouncing all over the place, some of them were just dead giveaways on our part. You’re not hanging any of those on him. It could have been worse. Seriously,” Bowness said
. “We don’t give up that many chances. We don’t give up that many shots. And Connor had to play better, and he made a lot of big saves at the right time, which he always does. I’m not hanging any of those goals on him.” post-gameWith Game 2 set for April 23 at 9:30 p.m. ET., Bednar won’t reveal if Annunen will be healthy enough to start or if Georgiev will be playing again.
“I’m not going to speculate,” Bednar said when asked if Annunen would be healthy enough to start Game 2.
Jared Bednar Believes Avalanche Made ‘Too Many’ Mistakes
Although Georgiev only made 16 saves on 23 shots, Bednar thinks Colorado made too many mistakes to get the win anyway.
However, the Avalanche head coach is pleased with certain things his team did, which they can build off in the series.
“We played extremely hard. We did a lot of good things. You don’t get six (goals) on the Jets without doing that. We also made some mistakes that they capitalized on. Too many, obviously tonight, and it ends up costing us the hockey game.”
Colorado’s top players did show up in the loss, as Cale Makar
recorded 3 points , while Mikko Rantanen, Nathan MacKinnon, and Artturi Lehkonen all had 2 points.Avalanche-Jets Playoff Schedule
Game 2 of the Avalanche-Jets playoff series takes place on April 23, and the full schedule is as follows:
Sunday, April 21 – Winnipeg 7, Colorado 6.
- Game 1: Tuesday, April 23 – Colorado at Winnipeg — 9:30 p.m. Eastern time
- Game 2: On Friday, April 26th, Winnipeg will play at Colorado at 10:00 p.m. Eastern time
- Game 3: On Sunday, April 28th, Winnipeg will play at Colorado at 2:30 p.m. Eastern time
- Game 4: If needed, the game will take place on Tuesday, April 30th, with Colorado playing at Winnipeg at a time to be determined
- Game 5 If needed, the game will take place on Thursday, May 2nd, with Winnipeg playing at Colorado at a time to be determined
- Game 6 If needed, the game will take place on Saturday, May 4th, with Colorado playing at Winnipeg at a time to be determined
- Game 7 Colorado Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar criticized his goalie Alexandar Georgiev after the 7-6 Game 1 loss to the Winnipeg Jets.
