After his then-girlfriend accused him of beating her, Avalanche goaltender Semyon Varlamov told the team’s managers that she hit him, and he moved her aside and locked himself in a bedroom, Avs head coach Patrick Roy testified Thursday.

The story Varlamov told Roy and other team managers differed from the account of Evgeniya Vavrinyuk.

Vavrinyuk, whose civil suit against Varlamov is being heard in Denver District Court, has testified that Varlamov beat her.

The suit, filed in October 2014, claims Varlamov had beaten her for years before his arrest in October 2013 on suspicion of felony kidnapping and assault.

Vavrinyuk has said the trouble that prompted Varlamov’s arrest began at a Halloween party with other team members and their wives in 2013 when Varlamov ignored her and spent his time on his cell phone.

After the party, she said, she went to the apartment they shared. When he came home from the party at about 6 a.m., he appeared drunk.

She pushed him, striking his face, and he kicked her in the chest, knocking her to the floor, she said. When she tried to get up, he kneeled on her chest to keep her down, she testified.

Prosecutors declined to file the criminal kidnapping charge and later dropped a misdemeanor assault charge against Varlamov.

Roy testified Thursday that Varlamov told him that when he arrived at his apartment, Vavrinyuk accused him of being with another woman.

She began punching him, and he went into a bedroom and locked the door without retaliating .

The goalie had marks on his upper body, chest and neck, said Roy, head coach and vice president of hockey operations for the Colorado Avalanche.

“When he gave us his side, we were satisfied with his story because he had marks and we felt he was telling the truth,” Roy said.

Varlamov seemed shocked and surprised by the accusation, said Roy.

Varlamov’s lawyer at the time told Roy that the goalie would have to spend a night in jail. “I told (Varlamov) it wasn’t going to be a fun one … he had better be prepared for it,” Roy said in court Thursday.

Varlamov was released in time to play a game against the Dallas Stars, in Texas, Roy recalled. But Varlamov was so upset that he didn’t think he could play.

“He started crying and said, ‘I don’t think I can play,’ I said, ‘Varly, I want you to go in there, and lose the game for us.’ I wanted him to know we were behind him,” Roy said.

“He said,’ I’m not going to lose the game’. I said, ‘Go in and win for us.’ ”

Olaf Muller, Vavrinyuk’s lawyer, on Thursday asked Roy about a conversation Roy had with a masseuse named Jay, who once had driven Vavrinyuk.

Roy answered that Jay told him that Vavrinyuk talked about how a woman having a period could sometimes throw dishes, and that she wanted a career in modeling.

Roy said Jay told him that Vavrinyuk complained about Varlamov lying on the couch watching television on Saturdays.

“He needed to take her out.” Roy recalled Jay telling him.

Tom McGhee: 303-954-1671, tmcghee@denverpost.com or @dpmcghee