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Grubauer is out indefinitely; Calvert to miss 'couple weeks'

February 17, 2020, 4:46 PM ET [7 Comments]
Rick Sadowski
Colorado Avalanche Blogger •Avalanche Insider • RSSArchiveCONTACT
As expected, Pavel Francouz will start in goal Monday against Tampa Bay at the Pepsi Center as Philipp Grubauer continues to be evaluated for a lower-body injury.

GAME NOTES

Grubauer was injured Saturday in the Stadium Series game at the Air Force Academy in the Avalanche’s 3-1 loss to Los Angeles. He was hurt at 2:33 of the third period in a collision with teammate Ian Cole while Kings forward Austin Wagner was driving to the net.

"I don't really have a timeline on it," coach Jared Bednar said after the morning skate. "He's still getting evaluated, he's still going through some testing or training room or whatnot. I'll have a better answer probably later in the week. Right now he's day-to-day and could miss some time."

Grubauer stopped 14 of 15 shots before he was relieved by Francouz, who made six saves.

Tyler Toffoli gave the Kings a 2-1 lead with 54.3 seconds left in regulation on a screen shot after the Avalanche iced the puck and lost the ensuing faceoff. Toffoli completed a hat trick with an empty-net goal with 4.3 seconds remaining.

Grubauer missed seven games earlier this season with lower-body injuries, five games from Nov. 7-16 and two games from Dec. 9-11.

Hunter Miska, who was recalled from the Eagles on Sunday, will back up Francouz.

Miska, 24, signed an NHL contract for the rest of the season last week. He has gone 13-5-3 with a 2.62 goals-against average and .919 save percentage in 22 games with the AHL team.

Francouz made 44 saves in a 6-2 win at Tampa on Oct. 19.

The Lightning weren’t playing all that well at the time, but they are the hottest team in the NHL now. They’ve won 10 games in a row and are 22-2-1 in their past 25 games.

The Avalanche also will be without forward Matt Calvert, who sustained a lower-body injury against the Kings.

"We're hoping it's an injury where we can get him back skating and playing here in the next couple weeks, but it's weeks, not days," Bednar said. "I'm not sure what happened, he felt it, pain in the lower body, and it got worse and worse. So he's got whatever you call it, oblique strain."

Matt Nieto will take Calvert’s spot on a line with Valeri Nichushkin and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare. T.J. Tynan, who was recalled Friday from the Eagles, will be on the fourth line with Tyson Jost and Vladislav Kamenev.

The 5-foot-8 Tynan, 27, leads the Eagles in scoring with 40 points (four goals, 36 assists) in 34 games. He played in 14 games with the Avalanche earlier this season and had an assist.

Lightning coach Jon Cooper said after the morning skate that former Colorado College star Curtis McElhinney will start in goal. He’s the backup to Andrei Vasilevskiy, who has won eight in a row and is 19-0-2 in his past 21 games.

The lineup:

FORWARDS
Andre Burakovsky -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Mikko Rantanen
Gabriel Landeskog -- J.T. Compher -- Joonas Donskoi
Valeri Nichushkin -- Pierre-Edouard Bellemare -- Matt Nieto
T.J. Tynan -- Tyson Jost -- Vladislav Kamenev

DEFENSE
Ryan Graves -- Cale Makar
Samuel Girard -- Erik Johnson
Nikita Zadorov -- Ian Cole

GOALIES
Pavel Francouz
Hunter Miska




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