Grubauer's Strong Season Continues in Goaltending Duel with Vegas

Since their previous meeting on Feb. 22, Philipp Grubauer of the Colorado Avalanche and Marc-Andre Fleury of the Vegas Golden Knights had both elevated their positions as being among the top goaltenders in the league this season. Head-to-head in 2020-21, both keepers owned a 2-2-0 record against one another entering their latest meeting.
In the fifth matchup of the year between the netminders on Thursday night, Grubauer and the Avalanche got the better of Fleury and Golden Knights, winning 5-1 at Ball Arena to take the lead in the eight-game season series. The victory was Grubauer's 20th in only his 27th game of the season, becoming the fastest goaltender in franchise history to reach 20-win mark in a campaign.

Patrick Roy previously held the mark after winning 20 contests in his first 30 appearances in Avs' Stanley Cup-winning campaign in 2000-01.
"He's been unbelievable all year," said J.T. Compher of Grubauer after the win versus Vegas. "Any time he's in the net, he's poised, he's calm, he's making the saves. When you have a goalie that is rolling like that it just breeds confidence in the room and you're seeing that right now."
Grubauer leads the league and has tied the franchise record for victories in single month with 10 so far in March, and he has won a career-high eight straight-games, which is tied for the fourth-longest winning streak for all goaltenders in Avalanche/Quebec Nordiques history. Roy holds the record with an 11-game winning streak in 1998-99.

With Colorado in the midst of a schedule that has it playing at least every other day, Grubauer has been counted on between the pipes for almost every game. He's started 26 of his 27 outings and has skated in all but five of the Avs' 32 contests at this point of the season.
"I feel pretty good. Nothing's changed. Nothing's changed preparation wise for tomorrow or the next game, just looking at one game at a time," Grubauer said on Friday. "I think we have enough time to recover in between games actually. I actually love the schedule because you kind of get in a rhythm. We don't have three or four days off between games. Not traveling too much. I feel great."
Rest and recovery at this time of the season is especially key, and Bednar has made it a priority for Grubauer and many of his other big-minute skaters. Grubauer hasn't taken part in many optional practices this year--including not participating in Friday's--and has even been held out of some morning skates to prevent the keeper from exerting more energy than necessary.
Grubauer did his part in the offseason as he mentioned prior to the start of the campaign that his late summer and fall focus was on his conditioning and recovery to make sure his body holds up when the workload increases.
"There's not much practicing or anything going on right now, so you almost have to do everything in the offseason or before the season starts in training camp," Grubauer said. "You can maintain a couple things, but you're definitely not building anything right now in terms of off-ice workouts and stuff. So I think the offseason and the time in between is really important."
Grubauer made 18-of-19 saves in the win on Thursday against Vegas, stopping all of the final 18 pucks he faced after Max Pacioretty opened the scoring just 40 seconds into the contest. The Knights held onto the 1-0 lead at the first intermission, but Colorado's offense got going in the second frame with four goals and eventually beat Fleury five times on 35 shots. It was the first time this year that Fleury had given up five markers in a contest.

Fleury, Grubauer and the Tampa Bay Lightning's Andrei Vasilevskiy are the only three league goalies to rank in the top six in wins, goals-against average, save percentage and shutouts among netminders with at least 10 games played. Grubauer ranks first in goals-against average (1.69) and shutouts (five) and second in wins (20) and save percentage (.931). Fleury is second in shutouts (four), third in wins (16), fifth in save percentage (.927) and sixth in goals-against average (2.06), dropping in a few of the categories following his most recent loss.
Thursday's game marked Grubauer's 100th in an Avalanche uniform, and he improved his record to 57-34-9 since being acquired in a trade with the Washington Capitals on June 22, 2018. In his career, he has a 99-59-20 record in 201 contests with the Avs and Caps.
While head coach Jared Bednar has yet to name his starting goalie for Saturday's contest against the Golden Knights, it's almost certain that it will be Grubauer, giving the Rosenheim, Germany, native the opportunity to get his 100th career victory and continue making his mark in the team's record book.

INJURY UPDATES

Head coach Jared Bednar said after further evaluation of Matt Calvert's nagging injuries that kept him out of Thursday's game that the forward will now be out week-to-week.
Bednar didn't have an update on Jacob MacDonald after the defenseman left in the third period following a blocked shot. MacDonald was still getting evaluated at the time of Bednar's media availability on Friday, and the coach considers him questionable for Saturday.
If MacDonald can't play, Dan Renouf or Greg Pateryn will likely return to game action. Conor Timmins is also a possibility, but the rookie was recently reassigned to the Colorado Eagles of the American Hockey League after missing eight outings with an upper-body injury.

ONE TIMERS

Jared Bednar on the Avs' success of limiting opponent rushes into their zone: "It's something we've taken a lot of pride on as a team. It's early reloads, it's making smart reads when a team is leaving the offensive zone, getting numbers above the puck. Obviously the D-gap is a big part of that and the ability to stay up and be able to skate with the rush attackers. It's not anything that we do just against Vegas. It's something that we try to do every night in order to make our team better, and we've been getting incrementally better over the course of the season and I think it's a commitment and work ethic thing for our team."
Pierre-Edouard Bellemare on the fourth line's success: "We're trying to be a reliable group for the coach so he can trust us against whatever line. He knows we're going to give the same work and be as good as possible from the team system. We haven't been as successful despite the (offensive) chances we've had this year I've felt, but yesterday [J.T. Compher] was unbelievable, and we had a good game, for sure."
Philipp Grubauer on a future contract extension: "My main focus is on Vegas tomorrow and stopping the puck tomorrow. Everything else is going to take care of itself. If it's now or in a week or in a couple months or like after the season, I don't think there is any rush to do that right now. We're focused on winning the game tomorrow and then the Stanley Cup."