"We have great players on the team, great defensemen, and I felt like we will not give them any chance today," said Francouz. "I just had a feeling. I was totally confident about them and they played an unreal game."
The Avalanche goaltender wasn't expecting to play in the matchup though as Philipp Grubauer, the other half of the Colorado goalie tandem, started in net. Grubauer left the outing at 17:25 of the first period with an injury. He was able to finish the contest on the bench as the backup netminder, although head coach Jared Bednar did not have an update on him postgame.
"I mean you don't really have time to think," Francouz said of entering the game. "You just grab your stuff and all of a sudden you are standing on the ice and you are trying to focus just on the game, on the puck and on the very next moment.
"I mean it is not easy, but I feel like it is easier to go there that early. When you sit there for like one or two hours you are cold, so its way easier to go there. I was still warm enough, and I saw Grubi go down, it's not a great feeling, but that is my job to be ready and as I said the teammates helped me a lot and it was a pleasure to play behind them today."
The Avs played a solid defensive game in front of him, limiting Boston's chances. Colorado held the Bruins to eight shots in the first and second periods combined while blocking 11 attempts.
Boston pushed harder offensively in the third and generated 12 shots on net in the frame while the Avalanche got in the way of 10 more shots and ended the game with 21 blocks, tied for its third most of the campaign.
"I thought we were skating, forecheck was rolling early. It was a tight-checking game, but it had really good pace to it," said Bednar. "I thought both teams were pretty disciplined and then we ended up making a couple plays. We lost Grubauer shortly into the game, Francouz came in, did a great job. We lost [Cale] Makar for a while at the end of the game and so with a short bench there I thought our D did a nice job. Lots of sacrifice too, especially at the end on the penalty kill on the five versus six and four versus six, guys getting in front of shots and blocking shots, real good commitment there."
The contest in Boston concluded a three-game trip that started with a 3-1 victory at the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday and continued with a 3-2 win at the Montreal Canadiens the next night. Grubauer made 38 stops in Toronto, while Francouz equaled that with a 38-save effort in Montreal.
The victory versus the Bruins was also Colorado's fourth straight away from Pepsi Center, the team's longest road win streak of the campaign and the longest since Nov. 11-Dec. 2, 2018 (six games).
