Georgiev gets first shutout with Avalanche against Capitals

WASHINGTON --Alexandar Georgiev made 32 saves for his first shutout with the Colorado Avalanche, a 4-0 win against the Washington Capitals at Capital One Arena on Saturday.

Georgiev, who was acquired from the New York Rangers on July 8, made 14 saves in the first period and stopped Washington forward Anthony Mantha on an open shot off the rush at 6:09 of the third period for his ninth NHL shutout.
"The guys did a good job to weather the storm in the first and kind of kept at it," Georgiev said. "They scored some big goals and they played smart, helped me out a lot."
Nathan MacKinnon and Artturi Lehkonen each had a goal and an assist for the Avalanche (10-5-1), who have won six of their past seven games, including a 3-2 overtime victory against the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday in which Pavel Francouz made 46 saves.
"The other night [Francouz] steals us a game. Tonight, the next guy goes in and plays a great game and gets a shutout," Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. "I think we're spoiled in that regard right now. Both guys are kind of playing real well."

Darcy Kuemper made 25 saves for the Capitals (7-10-3), who have lost four straight and nine of their past 11 games (2-6-3).
Kuemper, who won the Stanley Cup with Colorado last season, was playing against his former team for the first time since signing a five-year, $26.25 million contract with Washington on July 13.
"I don't think that we did enough to put ourselves in position to score goals tonight. Everything was more to the perimeter than it was to the interior," Capitals coach Peter Laviolette said. "Just with the adversity throughout the course of the game, we didn't do a very good job."
Cale Makar gave Colorado a 1-0 lead at 19:39 of the first period with a one-timer from the left face-off circle off a pass from MacKinnon during a 5-on-3 power play.
MacKinnon made it 2-0 at 13:14 of the second period when he skated down from the left point, deked around former teammate Nicolas Aube-Kubel and scored glove side on Kuemper.
"I had some time and I had some ice to work with, so I wanted to attack, make that player bite one way or the other, and managed to do that," MacKinnon said.

Andrew Cogliano extended it to 3-0 at 8:57 of the third period when the rebound of
Jacob MacDonald
's shot deflected in off his skate.
"We had some good chances, but they capitalized on theirs," Capitals forward Dylan Strome said. "Obviously, not the best game, not the game we wanted."
Lehkonen scored from the left circle at 16:12 for the 4-0 final.
"I'm trying to bring energy to the game, I think all of us are, but we're having trouble finding it," Washington defenseman Nick Jensen said. "We seemed kind of spread out where they were coming like a swarm on us. That's something we try to do, but we couldn't really find it tonight. As of late we can't really find it."
NOTES: Lehkonen has scored in three straight and extended his point streak to an NHL career-high six games (four goals, three assists). … MacKinnon has 16 points (two goals, 14 assists) in his past eight games. … Kuemper and Aube-Kubel each received his Stanley Cup championship ring following the game.