Colorado Avalanche: 5 Amazing Saves from Semyon Varlamov
Stopping the Red Wings
The Colorado Avalanche and Detroit Red Wings no longer have their historic rivalry. However, Avs fans will always love it when the team beats the hated Wings.
On March 18, the Avalanche hosted the Wings. I hadn’t been to a Wings game since the Stadium Series, so I was chagrined to see how many Detroit fans were in the audience. Seriously, can people just stay in their home states?
Anyway, it sucks when there are a lot of opponent fans in the audience at the Pepsi Center because when the opponent makes a goal, the cheering is as loud as when an Avalanche player makes a goal. That seriously sucks.
Luckily — thanks in no small part to Semyon Varlamov — the Detroit fans only had one goal to celebrate. Colorado fans, on the other hand, had five. That was a game that saw Varlamov face 38 shots.
Early in the third period, with the Avalanche up 3-1, Detroit goes on the power play. As the man-advantage winds down, Anthony Mantha gets the puck right on Varlamov’s doorstep. He makes two backhand attempts and keeps jabbing at the puck, but Varlamov keeps his pads in position to make the saves:
With under a minute to go, and the Avs still up 3-1, the Red Wings are in the Colorado zone again.
crashes the net and attempts to shove the puck in, but Varlamov kicks it away. The rebound heads to
, who makes a nifty backhand move.
Barrie falls flat on his back, but never mind. Semyon Varlamov makes the save again:
That victory really was sweet.