Sunday Success
Scott Wedgewood stopped 24 of the 25 shots he faced to record his first Stanley Cup Playoff win and help the Avalanche defeat the Los Angeles Kings 2-1 in Game One of the First Round on Sunday at Ball Arena. Artturi Lehkonen and Logan O'Connor scored for Colorado, while Nathan MacKinnon and Jack Drury each recorded an assist.
"I'm really happy with the way we played, too," Avalanche Head Coach Jared Bednar said. "I think that's the kind of game you can expect playing the Kings. It's a tight-checking team. What'd they play in, 50-something one-goal games and low-scoring games? I'm comfortable with that. I think our team's comfortable with that. [It's] gonna be hard to create offense...I liked what we did on the defensive side of things to minimize the quality of scoring chances, the quanity of scoring chances. [We] managed the puck well. Our guys played the right way and we got the job done tonight."
Colorado outshot Los Angeles 30-25 overall that included an 22-16 mark through the first two periods of the game. On special teams, the Avalanche killed three of four penalties it took.
“I thought we played hard," Gabriel Landeskog said. The first period was, I don’t want to say chaotic, but high-paced. Obviously, both teams want to establish their game and not really give an inch anywhere. I thought we got our forecheck going in the first period and momentum swings go back and forth.
