Andersen's Admirable Outing In Denver

DENVER - As the old adage goes, your goaltender has to be your best penalty killer. On Thursday, Frederik Andersen was that for the Carolina Hurricanes, and then some.

Although his evening started with four first-period goals of support, the performance was no walk in the park. Facing 18 shots in the opening 20 minutes, it was clear that the high-powered Avalanche were not going to go away quietly. Seven of those 18 were classified as high-danger chances by NaturalStatTrick, which is noteworthy, because entering Thursday's play, the Canes had allowed fewer than seven high-danger chances in half of their entire games they'd played thus far this season.

Yet, Andersen stood tall.

“He was the reason we got two points, for sure," Rod Brind'Amour praised post-game. "I don’t think we’ve ever given up that many shots or Grade A chances... (He faced) great scoring chances. He was phenomenal."

Aided by a whopping six power play chances over the final 40 minutes, Colorado was eventually able to close the gap in the third, but not before countless gargantuan stops from the man they call "Zilla".

Cale Makar on a breakaway? Denied. Josh Manson walking in alone? Turned aside.

Including a second period in which the Canes were outshot 16-5, Andersen repeated the same mantra that he's carried with him through all of his tenure as a Hurricane.

"One (save) at a time. Just try to give us a chance for the next one," he said following the final horn. "Obviously, it was nice to be in the driver's seat for a bit in terms of goals. They battled their way back, but we stuck with it and got the two points."

As the saves stacked up to an eventual 44, a new single-game best as a Hurricane for him, the showing was a reminder of Andersen's excellence and how effortless he can make big saves look.

“He’s a chill goalie, right? He makes hard saves look easy," Taylor Hall complimented. "He’s one of the best goalies in the world, I really believe that. If you look at his numbers over the past few years, there’s not many guys better than him. And honestly, there’s not many guys more consistent than him. Two points, he got one and a half of those points for us tonight, for sure.”

Finishing his night with three critical saves during overtime and going a perfect three-for-three in the shootout, Andersen was undoubtedly the star of the evening.

Posting a 1.72 goals saved above average per MoneyPuck.com, the veteran goalie also led the Canes to victory in a game that the team had just a ~30% chance on the website's "Deserve To Win O'Meter".

Adding to the impressiveness of the victory was that Andersen found a way to get it done with not one, not two, but three rookies on the blue line in front of him. Alexander Nikishin was tasked with a big role as Charles Alexis Legault and Joel Nystrom played in their second and first NHL games, respectively.

While the trio commendably strapped up the work boots, the absence of Shayne Gostisbehere, K'Andre Miller, and Jaccob Slavin - and the loss of key forwards Will Carrier and Eric Robinson - meant that the backstop was tasked with his biggest workload in nearly six years (48 shots faced). Only Elvis Merzlikins (52) of the Columbus Blue Jackets has faced more in a game this season.

"We all wanted to battle for each other, and obviously, we were up against a really good team," Andersen added. "It's never easy when you start seeing guys fall (to injury). We just wanted to battle for each other, and I'm proud of the way we did that. That was fun."