Hunter Miska Defeats Former Team For First Win

Hunter Miska won his first career NHL game and did so against his former team.
The goaltender made 16-of-18 saves on Friday night to help the Colorado Avalanche break a two-game losing streak and earn a 3-2 win versus the Arizona Coyotes at Gila River Arena.
"Losing back-to-back games is not ideal for this group, so we wanted to come back and bounce back in a positive way," said veteran Nazem Kadri. "I think for the most part we were in control of that game, and it was nice for 'Misky' to get his first NHL win."
Miska was making his third career NHL start and his first against the Coyotes, an organization he spent two seasons with from 2017-2019 while primarily as a member of its American Hockey League affiliate, the Tucson Roadrunners. The netminder also made his NHL debut with Arizona, doing so in a relief appearance on Nov. 13, 2018 at Detroit, but it wasn't until this season with Colorado where he's received a real chance to showcase his abilities in the major leagues.

With goaltender Pavel Francouz out long term with a lower-body injury, Miska has been relied upon as the backup for the Avalanche this season. He made his first NHL start on Jan. 21 at the Los Angeles Kings and played again on Jan. 31 in his home state versus the Minnesota Wild, but he went 0-1-1 in those outings.
The third time was the charm for North Branch, Minnesota, native, who certainly had some extra motivation heading into the matchup with the Yotes but concentrated on being even-keel.
"I just prepared like I did any other game. I didn't really think about it too much," Miska mentioned of facing the Coyotes. "My main focus was to come in here and get two points and start this road trip off well."

Miska didn't face a lot of shots in the contest, as he stopped the first 15 that came his way with the Avalanche building its lead to 3-0 in the third period. Arizona rallied with two late goals, but Miska made a few key stops in the final seconds of regulation to shut the door on the Coyotes' pursuit of a comeback.
"For the bulk of the game, I thought he looked calm, cool and collected and did a nice job for us," said head coach Jared Bednar of Miska. "Didn't give up a lot of rebounds. He didn't get a lot of shots, but everything he had he handled it clean. He looked composed."
The Colorado's skaters did their part for the 25-year-old, limiting Arizona to single-digit shot totals each period and blocked 11 of the 39 shots attempts.
"It gives me confidence, and I knew we were going to have a great game from the start of the game," said Miska when asked about his defense in front of him. "They were letting me see the [shooting] lanes and see the puck, and I was making saves and coming out here with the win."
The keeper has almost exclusively been with the Avs since January, serving in a third-string role and practicing with the club on the taxi squad when he wasn't fulfilling backup duties. In preparation for Friday's contest--a back-to-back set where he was likely to play one of the outings with Philipp Grubauer having started a season-high six in a row--Miska was assigned to the Avs' AHL club, the Colorado Eagles, earlier this week to get some more live action.
Miska guarded the pipes on Wednesday night in his first game in more than three weeks and made 27 saves to give the Eagles their second win of the campaign. And he did it against the Tucson Roadrunners, nonetheless.
"Obviously coming in, playing Tucson the other day, that was obviously my old team. It was super fun to get a win against those guys," Miska said. "My goal tonight was to get two points from the big club as well, and we came back and accomplished that."
Miska's first NHL win? Check. Wins this week against his former teams? Double check.

BURAKOVSKY'S MILESTONE

Andre Burakovsky played in his 400th career NHL game on Friday and is one point shy of reaching another milestone.
Burakovsky scored early in the third period to extend Colorado's lead to 2-0 and give him 199 career points.
Selected by the Washington Capitals at No. 23 overall in the first round of the 2013 NHL Draft, Burakovsky played his first 328 games with the Capitals before the Avalanche acquired him in a trade on June 28, 2019. Burakovsky set new career highs in goals (20), assists (25) and points (45) in only 58 games last year with the Avs and now has four goals and five assists this season.
"Since I've come to Colorado I think I've definitely got a confidence boost and finally found my real game, what I'm good at and what I'm capable of doing," Burakovsky said following morning skate. "Now I just got to keep moving forward and try and get better at that every day."

CALVERT A LATE OUT

Matt Calvert took warmup, but he didn't dress for the game as the forward was a late scratch. Head coach Jared Bednar said postgame that Calvert was out with a lower-body injury, forcing Colorado to use only 17 skaters for the second time this season.
"That was a little bit of a surprise for us, just because of the way we had guys on the roster and taxi squad," Bednar said of the non-ordinary lineup from Calvert's injury. "It was a late decision that we didn't know was coming."
Calvert had missed seven games earlier this year with an upper-body injury, but he had been a key contributor in the three contests he played following his return. He skated 16:03 while on the second line in Colorado's previous outing on Wednesday versus Minnesota.

MORE POSTGAME NOTES

Colorado was beginning a back-to-back in Arizona, its third of eight total consecutive-night sets this season. The Avs are now 2-1-0 in the first game of those series.
The Avalanche has scored the first goal in 12 of its 17 games this season and is 9-2-1 when getting on the scoreboard first.
Colorado was 2-for-2 on the penalty kill and is now 49-for-55 (89.1 percent) this season, remaining the top-ranked PK in the league.
The Avs won 58.6 percent of their faceoffs, the squad's highest faceoff-win percentage in a game this year.
Nazem Kadri (one goal, two assists) recorded his third multi-point game of the season and second three-point outing (also Jan. 28 vs. San Jose). His goal in the third period was the game-winner, his team-leading third game-winning goal of the campaign.
Mikko Rantanen notched two points (goal and assist) and has six points (one goal and five assists) in his last five appearances. His second-period tally came on the power play, and he now leads the team with four man-advantage markers.