News and notes from around the crease...
Colorado goes back to Jiggy
After Semyon Varlamov allowed five goals on 27 shots in Wednesday’s 6-4 loss to Nashville, the Avs are turning to J.S. Giguere for tonight’s game against Calgary.
Giguere, 36, has been one of the NHL’s best backups this season, posting a 4-0-0 record with a 0.75 GAA and .977 save percentage. He has two shutouts already -- in Pittsburgh and Boston -- and will look to take advantage of a Calgary team that’s lost seven of its last 11.
Calgary will start Karri Ramo tonight.
Ducks to start Andersen
Another goalie will look to keep his perfect record intact tonight -- Frederik Andersen, the Anaheim rookie that’s won the first four games of his professional career.
Andersen, 24, will go for the Ducks on Friday against Buffalo, just four nights after stopping 33 shots in a 2-1 win over the Rangers on Monday. Andersen is 4-0-0 with a 1.36 GAA and .952 save percentage this year, and it’ll be interesting to see what Anaheim decides to do with him now that Viktor Fasth seems ready to return from injury.
Andersen will take on Buffalo’s Ryan Miller tonight.
Elsewhere...
-- The Maple Leafs, who haven’t played since Saturday’s 4-0 loss in Vancouver, will give Jonathan Bernier his first start in eight days tonight against New Jersey. He’ll go up against Cory Schneider, who has just one win this season.
-- Carter Hutton and Ondrej Pavelec will square off in the Preds-Jets game. Winnipeg goes back to Pavelec after starting Al Montoya in the last two games.