Georgiev aims to ‘stay positive’ for Avalanche heading into Game 2 of Western 1st Round

WINNIPEG -- Alexandar Georgiev was understandably disappointed but also optimistic.

“I feel eventually it is going to come,” the Colorado Avalanche goalie said after allowing seven goals on 23 shots in a 7-6 loss to the Winnipeg Jets in Game 1 of the Western Conference First Round on Sunday. “They scored some really good goals, a couple lucky ones. You have to stay positive and try to find out what happened today and move forward. It’s only 1-0 in the series, so I’m looking forward to the next game.”

He’ll need to rebound, along with his teammates in front of him, in Game 2 of the best-of-7 series at Canada Life Centre on Tuesday (9:30 p.m. ET; CBC, TVAS, ALT, ESPN).

Avalanche coach Jared Bednar wouldn’t speculate following Game 1 when asked if he’d consider a goaltending change Tuesday, although there may not be an option there, anyway.

Backup goalie Justus Annunen was unavailable in Game 1 due to illness (Arvid Holm backed up Georgiev), and the 24-year-old was still sick Monday and did not participate in an optional practice. Annunen, a rookie, was 8-4-1 with a 2.25 goals-against average, .928 save percentage and two shutouts in 14 regular-season games (12 starts). He has played 18 career NHL games, all with the Avalanche, and has never started in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Ivan Prosvetov was recalled from Colorado of the American Hockey League on Tuesday, and Holm was reassigned to the AHL. Prosvetov was 4-3-1 with a 3.16 GAA and .895 save percentage in 11 games (eight starts) with the Avalanche this season. The 25-year-old has played 24 career NHL games (16 starts) with the Arizona Coyotes and Avalanche.

Bednar said Monday that Game 2 “is going to be about mental toughness, right? Not just for [Georgiev], for our group.”

“As positive as I'm going to be up here and sitting up here, we didn't win the hockey game, but you have to be able to reset,” Bednar said. “It's about playing tomorrow the best game we possibly can, controlling what we can control, getting better at some of the areas that we have to, continuing to go in the direction that we were in some of the things like offensive output and how heavily involved we were with our forwards,” Bednar said. “If you're dwelling on the past in the playoffs, then you're not setting yourselves up for success the next night, and ‘Georgie's’ no different. He's got to reset and go play better than he did last night.”

Avalanche forward Ross Colton wasn’t worried about Georgiev’s ability to come back.

“He’s our guy and obviously maybe he wants some back, but that’s on us,” Colton said. “We have to do a better job of eliminating the turnovers, boxing guys out in front, not giving them the Grade-A [chances] that they had. That’s for us to kind of clean up in front of him.”

Defenseman Josh Manson took responsibility for his miscues, including a pass that deflected off Jets forward Alex Iafallo’s stick and right to Vladislav Namestnikov, who scored for a 2-1 Jets lead at 11:57 of the first period.

“You figure out what went wrong and how you can be mentally sharp or sharper,” Manson said. “I did feel like offensively I was contributing, and I was making plays, but really that’s not my game. My game that has kept me in the NHL isn’t putting points on the board. It’s keeping pucks out of the back of the net.

“I think I need to get back to that a little bit, just getting harder to play against in front of the net and making a little bit better reads and let the offense come from there. I did feel like I played a pretty good game, but [I] made a few mistakes and they ended up in the back of our net.”

The Avalanche were more than happy with their offensive output; their six goals in Game 1 were two more than they had in three regular-season games combined against the Jets. Offense wasn’t a problem during the regular season for Colorado, which led the NHL with 3.68 goals per game.

They’re confident they can fix what’s necessary on the other side.

“I think they’ve got a good read on what we are, and we’ve got a good read on what they are,” center Casey Mittelstadt said. “For us, it’s just using our forecheck, getting on their [defense] and trying to play with the puck is probably the main objective.

“I thought we did a good job of it last night and we’re going to have to clean up some things defensively, but keep our focus on that and I think we should be fine.”