Colorado Avalanche goaltender Philipp Grubauer missed his 5-3 loss to the Dallas Stars on Saturday due to an injury.
In the second period, Grubauer went face down on the ice after he fired a shot away with his right skate. He was assisted by coaches and replaced by Pavel Francouz when Colorado dropped Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinal series.
“Obviously he’s in a position where he’s adjusting a bit, and he’s unable to move on,” said Avalanche coach Jared Bednar. “That’s bad news. Time will tell how long he will be out. I have no idea at this point. … It will be Francouz’s network here.”
Grubauer, who was 5-0-1 with a 1.49 goal versus average and .937 save percentage in Edmonton, Alberta, bubble that came into Game 1, was able to score three goals on 10 shots. Francouz stopped 18 of 20 shots.
The Avalanche pulled Francouz off the ice with 3:24 left in favor of the man.
This is the first time in the postseason rounds that Colorado has dragged a series, after Arizona defeated Five in five games in Round 1. Dallas has never slipped in Game 1.
“They came out hard, no doubt,” said Colorado forward Gabriel Landeskog of the Stars, who defeated the Calgary Flames in six games in the previous round. “Towards 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 some.
“We made some wrong decisions, some bad reads. I will give Dallas all the credit. They were busy and ready to go to compete to win,” he said. “We did some not-so-bad things. Our brains weren’t turned on, and they weren’t busy.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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