Less than two weeks after being traded for each other, goalies Alexandar Georgiev of the San Jose Sharks and Mackenzie Blackwood of the Colorado Avalanche might face off when the teams meet on Thursday night in San Jose.
Both goalies started in their most recent games.
Georgiev made 29 saves in a 4-3 loss to the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday night. His chances of starting against his former team seem even more likely after backup goalie Vitek Vanecek was hit in the face with the puck while sitting on the bench and couldn’t continue for the rest of the game.
The Sharks called up their top goalie prospect Yaroslav Askarov from the AHL affiliate, the San Jose Barracuda, on Wednesday. Askarov has played in two games for the Sharks, with a 1-0-1 record, a 1.96 goals-against average, and a .927 save percentage.
Blackwood made 22 saves in a 3-1 loss to the Vancouver Canucks on Monday, marking his second straight start since the trade on Dec. 9.
“It was a fine game,” Blackwood said. “Nothing tremendous, but there’s a lot to build on.”
No matter who starts in goal for the Avalanche, they are eager to improve a power play that’s 1 for 18 in the past seven games, after going 0 for 4 against the Canucks.
“A work in progress for us lately,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “They’re in a battle right now to make it more consistent, to get to the interior of the ice, to get some good looks. There are some things I like (against Vancouver) where they took a step but just couldn’t find the back of the net.”
Colorado forward Mikko Rantanen is on a six-game point streak (three goals, nine assists), placing him in a four-way tie for second place in the NHL for points (47) as of Wednesday.
San Jose will try to recover after letting a 3-2 lead slip away with eight minutes left in their game against the Jets.
The Sharks also led 3-2 in the third period against the Utah Hockey Club on Saturday, but they allowed the last two goals and lost 4-3.
“It’s just disappointing,” Sharks forward Tyler Toffoli said. “I thought we put together a pretty good game (against Winnipeg), and obviously (we had) some breakdowns and goals against, but at the end of the day, we got to keep moving forward and look at the positives here and try to continue to build and finish games off.”
The Sharks have lost five of their past six games and entered Wednesday just one point ahead of the last-place Anaheim Ducks in the Pacific Division. The Ducks were playing the Jets on Wednesday.
“It was better, but we still lost the game. Still a lot of work to do,” San Jose coach Ryan Warsofsky said of the Winnipeg game. “We had a power play when they made it 3-3 and had some opportunities on that power play. They pushed. You could kind of feel it coming with their execution on some breakouts. They got us hemmed in and they jumped on us.”
Sharks rookie Macklin Celebrini has been their top player lately. The No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 NHL Draft is on a four-game point streak (three goals, four assists), including a goal and an assist against Winnipeg.
Other teams are definitely noticing.
“I think they’re understanding how good of a player he is,” Warsofsky said. “He’s a special player.”
