DENVER — It took nine games for the Avalanche to give starting goalie Alexandar Georgiev a break. The result was a solid performance from backup Ivan Prosvetov on Wednesday, who made 27 saves to lead the Avs to a 4-1 victory over the St. Louis Blues at Ball Arena. Prosvetov, 24, was picked up off the waiver wire on the eve of the season, joining the team from the Arizona Coyotes where he dressed in 13 games over three seasons. He debuted with Colorado last week in Pittsburgh, replacing Georgiev for the final 8:05 of a 4-0 shutout loss at the hands of the Penguins. He made five saves.
The victory over the Blues was his first NHL win since April 8 — his second-last game with the Coyotes.
“I knew my job coming in here,” Prosvetov said of the lengthy wait before playing. “They told me I need to be patient and I was. You work as hard as you can to keep in shape. I know how to take my role.”
Ross Colton, Mikko Rantanen, Artturi Lekonen and Bowen Byram scored for the Avalanche, who ended a two-game losing streak — both shutout losses — improving to 7-2-0 on the season. Colorado is 3-0-0 at Ball Arena to open the season.
“He made all the saves he was supposed to make and then some,” head coach Jared Bednar said of Prosvetov. “I liked our checking game, I liked what we did. But there was a 10-minute stretch in the second period where it was a track meet, we were giving up some chances and I thought he was excellent.”
Following an early successful penalty kill, Colorado got on the board first thanks to a long pass up the boards from Miles Wood to Colton, who used his speed to skate around defenseman Tyler Tucker before beating goalie Jordan Binnington. Colton’s tally was his second of the season but first on a netminder. He scored his first goal as a member of the Avs on an empty net against the New York Islanders.
“Our line played pretty well tonight so I thought we deserved one,” Colton said. “Kind of just a weight off the back.”
The lead doubled a few minutes later thanks to a successful power play. Rantanen chipped in his team-best sixth of the year off a feed from Cale Makar. Playing on his off wing, Rantanen secured the pass and skated into the circle before wiring it past Binnington from the faceoff dot with both Ryan Johansen and Lehkonen screening the goalie. Rantanen also added an assist for another multi-point effort.
Prosvetov didn’t surrender a goal until the final minutes of the second period to Robert Thomas. Moments later, the Blues drew a penalty on defenseman Josh Manson that carried over into the third period. The Avs were once again successful in killing off the remainder of the PK in the third before adding to their lead on the ensuing shift. The zone entry started on Makar’s stick and later ended with Makar feeding Lehkonen for the back door tap-in. Colorado was 4-for-4 on the PK, three of which came before the Lehkonen goal and the final with just 20 seconds remaining in regulation.
They extended their lead to three goals at 7:59 after MacKinnon dropped a pass to the trailing Byram, who beat the goalie for his second of the season.
Coming off those two consecutive 4-0 losses, Bednar wasn’t shy about needing to make a change. The team called up forward Riley Tufte from the Colorado Eagles and inserted him into the top six. The towering winger skated on the second line alongside Valeri Nichushkin and Johansen. He had four shots on goal in 11:28 of ice time but failed to record a point. Bednar also dressed Kurtis MacDermid on the fourth line after scratching him for seven consecutive games.
“I thought he was impactful,” Bednar said of Tufte, who is among the leading scorers in the AHL with six in as many games. “He’s strong on pucks down low. Nose is always over the puck in the net front. He goes there hard. He likes to shoot it, he’s got a great shot.”
To make way for the two additions, Tomas Tatar and Jonathan Drouin were healthy scratches. The pair of unrestricted free-agent signings have combined for zero goals thus far. Drouin assisted on the first goal of the season in L.A. and has failed to register a point since. Tatar has four helpers in eight games.
With MacDermid on the fourth line, Logan O’Connor was elevated to the third line, joining Colton and Wood. The changes ended up paying dividends all around. It’s the type of decision Bednar was unable to make last season because of both injuries and lack of depth. The goal isn’t to keep Tatar and Drouin out of the lineup, but rather serve as the type of wakeup call that warrants a response.
