Colorado rallied back from a three-goal deficit to win Game 1 in overtime against Dallas but it was not their best effort.
The Colorado Avalanche showed resiliency and determination in the 4-3 overtime Game 1 comeback win but have some parts of their game to work on for Game 2.
“We talked about a few things today that we needed to do better. Just things that we needed to clean up … we need to make sure that we shore up for tomorrow to give us a better chance,” Andrew Cogliano said at a media conference on Wednesday. “Overall our game was good throughout … we got better as the game went on. Our forecheck got going and we played the way we wanted to play, but they’re going to be desperate in terms of getting a win on home ice for themselves. So we’re going to have to go over what we did, what we saw and what their game plan is and hopefully get better at neutralizing that.”
Although Cogliano said the team played the way they wanted, there was a slow-start element and other areas that head coach Jared Bednar said needed to improve for Game 2.
“Our forecheck has got to be better. We got caught underneath the puck a number of times and gave up some odd-man rushes. I thought our (defensemen) did a nice job handling those odd-man rushes and limiting scoring chances. But too many dangerous situations for my liking,” Bednar said.
The Avs scored two power-play goals and their top players had multi-point games to rally from a three-goal deficit. They could not have earned the win without the strong game from Alexandar Georgiev, who made crucial saves to give his team a fighting chance. The Bulgaria native has improved his game throughout the playoffs.
“It’s huge … the biggest hurdle was (Game) 1 to (Game) 2 in Winnipeg. And then he (Georgiev) kind of found his groove. Now he’s stayed focused. He understands what he needs to do and he’s kept that going now in Series 2. That challenge from going from series one to series two is no different than any other player on our team. Some guys handle it better than others. We had some players that we really liked last night, we had some that we didn’t like,” Bednar said. “There’s room for growth in our team from our game from last night, but I think Georgy (Georgiev), especially, after settling down after the first period, that takes some resilience and some mental toughness and he was able to do that with the rest of our team.”
Bednar said the team was anxious to get back at it after a week of rest but Georgiev said he was good to go to start Game 1. He made 19 saves and his team played a mostly tight defensive game to keep the Stars’ scoring chances to 12, according to Natural Stat Trick.
Game 2 is Thursday night at American Airlines Center with a scheduled 7:30 p.m. MT puck drop.
