Varlamov Has A Monster Game For Avalanche

The Carolina Hurricanes spent most of the night trying to get pucks past Avalanche goalie Semyon Varlamov. Every direction, every angle, every corner. But Varlamov was the one that stopped the door on the Hurricanes on Thursday night.

Varlamov stopped a career-high 57 shots and Blake Comeau scored one of three second-period goals for Colorado to lead them to a 5-3 win over the Hurricanes.

In this game, Varlamov set a new Avalanche record for most saves in a regular-season game. He still couldn't get the franchise record, set by Ron Tugnutt when he got 70 shots on them back in March of 1991 when the Avalanche were still known as the Quebec Nordiques.

Well, the Nordiques are gone and Varlamov is now considered the hero of Avalanche hockey, not that he's already etched his name on that.

Varlamov wasn't even worn out apparently, saying to reporters after the game, "I feel not bad, actually...Sometimes you face 30 shots and you're exhausted after the game. You never know how your body is reacting."

Well, he must've felt pretty good after the game. He looked pretty good and was the big difference-maker for the Avalanche on that game.

Varlamov has come a long way since his Vezina Trophy finalist days back in the 2013-14 season, and is coming off much of last season after having hip surgery to fix a groin issue he had been dealing with before that surgery.

The little extra: The bad loss to the Vegas Golden Knights in Vegas may have given him an extra boost, considering that he gave up seven goals in that game. Only three in this one.

Varlamov said about bouncing back, "If you have a bad game, the next night you have to bounce back, so I had to forget about it and then just keep going."

Gabriel Landeskog and Mikko Rantanen also contributed with goals with Carl Soderbergh added one, and Patrik Nemeth got his first NHL goal. The Avalanche are now 5-1 at home and they embark on a four-game, 10-day road trip that will also take them to Stockholm, Sweden.

The Avalanche played great on the night. I don't want to take anything away from Varlamov, because he played well, but this is a team that still has trouble on the road and they also played a team in Carolina that isn't playing so well either. But Varlamov did what he had to do tonight and he was indeed the big difference-maker in this game.

I'm hoping for good things from this win. I don't know how a 10-day road trip can solve that, but you have to go somewhere and he's the best players they have on the ice. He's on a bad day, like the one we saw in Vegas, the team has no chance. On a good day, he gives them a better chance.

It was a great game all around but Varlamov especially. And I was glad that I saw this game in Denver because it was the textbook definition of playing great goaltending, and by golly, that's what the Avalanche played with all night, and it paid off.