Wedgewood's First Playoff Victory Leads Avs to 2-1 Win Against Kings in Game One

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 quantity 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. Additionally, the Avalanche killed three of four penalties it took with Wedgewood stopping five of six shots while Colorado was short-handed.

"I thought he was fantastic," Bednar said about Wedgewood. "He did everything he needed to do...Obviously bigger stakes, more emotion, but [he] played the exact same way that he's been playing for us all year."

How It Happened

Colorado thought it took the lead at 6:46 of the middle frame when Logan O'Connor's shot went into the net, but it was ruled no goal due to goaltender interference and confirmed after the Avalanche unsuccessfully challenged the play. 

Lehkonen opened the scoring at 15:29 of the second period when he capitalized on a rebound at the doorstep created by MacKinnon's right-circle shot.

"That's how he scores," Bednar said about Lehkonen. "He goes to the net. He hangs around the net. He has a knack for coming up with pucks."

Colorado doubled its lead at 5:50 of the third period when O'Connor scored off the rush via a top-shelf shot from the doorstep after picking up a bouncing puck. That tally was O'Connor's first goal in either the regular season or playoffs since April 26, 2025.

"I'm really happy for him," Bednar said about O'Connor. "That's a long road to get back, and Gabe (Landeskog) had gone through a similar thing. Being out of the lineup is the worst thing when you're a player, because you're just wanting to help and wanting to make an impact. And then you come back, and your game is not gonna be 100%. It's not gonna be top tier right away. So he's continuing to work through that to be effective and [he's] always committed, always gonna work, always gonna do everything he can to help the team. But it just takes a little bit to get your legs underneath you and be impactful. It's hard to measure the impact of player on the defensive side of things, but he's been really good. And we know he can chip in on the offensive side of things. He did tonight, and I expect that he'll continue to make an impact. So I'm really happy for him."

Artemi Panarin put the Kings on the board with a power-play goal at 17:38 of the third period via a shot from the point.

Next Up

The Avalanche hosts the Kings for Game Two of the First Round on Tuesday at 8 p.m. MT on Altitude, Altitude+, ESPN, the ESPN App, Altitude Sports Radio 92.5 FM and the Altitude Sports Radio App.