Grubauer injured as Avalanche falter in Game 1

NHL

Colorado Avalanche goaltender Philipp Grubauer left his team’s 5-3 loss to the Dallas Stars on Saturday because of an injury.

In the second period, Grubauer went face down on the ice after pushing a shot away with his right skate. He was helped off by trainers and replaced by Pavel Francouz as Colorado dropped Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinal series.

“Obviously, he’s in a position there where he tweaked something, and he’s unable to continue,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “So that’s already bad news. Time will tell how long he’s going to be out. I have no idea at this point. … It’s going to be Francouz’s net here.”

Grubauer, who was 5-0-1 with a 1.49 goals against average and .937 save percentage in the Edmonton, Alberta, bubble coming into Game 1, allowed three goals on 10 shots. Francouz stopped 18 of 20 shots.

The Avalanche pulled Francouz off the ice with 3:24 left for the man advantage.

This is the first time in the postseason rounds that Colorado has trailed a series, having defeated Arizona in five games in Round 1. Dallas never trailed in Game 1.

“They came out hard, no doubt,” Colorado forward Gabriel Landeskog said of the Stars, who defeated the Calgary Flames in six games in the previous round. “Toward the end of that Calgary series, it looked like they kind of came into their own and started playing better than what they showed in the round robin.”

Bednar concurred.

“We made some bad decisions, some bad reads. I’ll give Dallas all the credit. They were engaged and ready to go to compete to win,” he said. “We did some not smart things. Our brains were not turned on, and they weren’t engaged.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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