Semyon Varlamov Defeats Chicago Blackhawks 54-0

The first 1:17 seconds of tonight’s contest against the Chicago Blackhawks had me feeling like a kid in candy shop. The rest of the game felt like a trip to the dentist office, hoping that I wouldn’t be disappointed after an influx of sugary treats.

Fortunately, the Colorado Avalanche were able to hang on to the 2-0 lead they jumped out to in the first 77 seconds of tonight’s game, and Semyon Varlamov ensured that I went home with ZERO cavities.

Varlamov was the story of the game, no doubt. He faced 54 shots, and gave up ZERO goals, to the fifth best goal scoring team in the NHL. It was vintage Varlamov, and a throwback to the recipe for success the Avalanche used on many occasions last season. A few opportunistic goals, and then riding the russian netminder to victory.

This was Varly’s masterpiece. The 54-save shutout is a regular season franchise record, and trails only Ben Scrivens’ 59-save shutout in magnitude since the 82-83 season. Quite a night for Varly. Now we cross our fingers that he wakes up in one piece tomorrow, and doesn’t have another date with the injury bug.

Nathan MacKinnon opened the scoring for the Avalanche, just 53 seconds into the contest. It marks the 6th straight game that the Blackhawks have surrendered the first goal.

John Mitchell got a shot away from between the circles, and MacKinnon was able to gather the rebound to the right of the net. MacK roofed a wicked shot from a sharp angle, and the boys in white were off and running.

MacKinnon keyed on the second goal as well. John Mitchell banked a puck off the boards to exit the zone, and the speedy nineteen-year-old used his wheels to chase down the puck. MacKinnon then went to his backhand, and passed (err maybe lost the puck) to Max Talbot, who tapped it in for the 2-0 lead. The puck just managed to trickle in through the pads of Crawford who was sliding across to attempt the save.

The rest of the game, the Avalanche really sat back too much I thought. The Hawks ended up winning the shot battle in the first period 17-11, despite the Avalanche getting 6 of the first 7 shots.

The onslaught of red continued in the second period, with the Hawks piling up a 21-5 shot advantage, and a 16-8 advantage in the third period.

I think there are a few trains of thought on this. First off, that second period is just not good enough. The Avalanche can consider themselves fortunate that Varlamov played so well, and that the Blackhawks weren’t able to capitalize. The puck was in possession of a Chicago player almost the entire period. A 2-0 lead against a team as good as Chicago generally isn’t safe, and the Avalanche need to be able to possess the puck, and generate some scoring chances of their own.

Plus, giving up that many shots, and also playing that much in your own zone makes your goalie work extremely hard. Varlamov is a player who can put on a performance like he did tonight, but you don’t want to overwork your goalie like that.

Bottom line, the Avalanche need to be better when it comes to possession.

On the flip side, when the Blackhawks had the puck in the Avalanche zone, the defensive coverage was good tonight. The Avalanche did a good job of clearing out shooting lanes, and allowing Varly to see every shot.

The defenders and backchecking forwards also did a great job clearing out rebounds from the front of the net, or tying up Hawks players attempting to punch home rebounds.

I think the Blackhawk shot totals were actually a bit inflated, because they really were throwing everything at the net tonight. There weren’t as many prime scoring chances as there maybe could have been. Props to the Avs defense for that.

A nice win for the Avalanche, and was a blast watching Varly put on a show tonight. I’m going to go out on a limb, and say that the next time I recap a game, the Avalanche will be above .500 for the first time all season.