Less than two weeks after they were traded for each other, goaltenders Alexandar Georgiev of the San Jose Sharks and Mackenzie Blackwood of the Colorado Avalanche could go head-to-head when the teams meet on Thursday night in San Jose.
Both started in goal in their team’s most recent games.
Georgiev had 29 saves in a 4-3 loss to the visiting Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday night. His chances of starting against his former team look even better after backup goalie Vitek Vanecek was struck in the face with the puck while on the bench and was not available the remainder of the game.
The Sharks recalled top goalie prospect Yaroslav Askarov on Wednesday from their AHL affiliate, the San Jose Barracuda. Askarov has played in two games for the Sharks and is 1-0-1 with a 1.96 goals-against average and .927 save percentage.
Blackwood made 22 saves in a 3-1 loss at the Vancouver Canucks on Monday, 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.”
Regardless of who starts in goal for the Avalanche, they’re desperate to improve on 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 enters on a six-game point streak (three goals, nine assists), which has him in a four-way tie for second place in the NHL in points (47) entering Wednesday.
San Jose will be trying to bounce back after letting a 3-2 lead with eight minutes left slip away against the Jets.
The Sharks also led 3-2 nearing the halfway point of the third period against the visiting Utah Hockey Club on Saturday, but they surrendered the final 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 dropped five of their past six overall and entered Wednesday one point ahead of the last-place Anaheim Ducks in the Pacific Division. The Ducks hosted 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 performance. “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 best player of late. The No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 NHL Draft enters on a four-game point streak (three goals, four assists) after contributing a goal and an assist against Winnipeg.
Other teams have certainly noticed.
“I think they’re understanding how good of a player he is,” Warsofsky said. “He’s a special player.”
–Field Level Media
