Scott Wedgewood and Mackenzie Blackwood Combined to Backstop NHL's Best Defense in 2025-26 Regular Season

In its first full season together, the Avs’ goaltending pair of Scott Wedgewood and Mackenzie Blackwood, also known as The Lumberyard, had a fantastic 2025-26 campaign. The duo combined to post a 54-16-8 record along with seven shutouts and a .913 save percentage while winning the franchise’s second William M. Jenning Trophy, “to the goaltender(s) having played a minimum of 25 games for the team(s) with the fewest goals scored against it during the regular season.” 

In net for Colorado, Wedgewood led goalies with at least 25 games played in save percentage (.921) and goals-against average (2.02) while posting a 31-6-6 record along with four shutouts, while Blackwood went 23-10-2 with a .904 save percentage, a 2.51 GAA and three shutouts.  

With Blackwood sidelined due to injury to start the season, Wedgewood started 11 of the team’s first 12 games of the season, all in October, posting a 7-1-2 record along with a .900 save percentage. 

On November 1st, Blackwood made his season debut in what was the beginning of a stellar month of play for the duo. In his first month of play in 2025-26, Blackwood went 5-0-1 with a .925 save percentage along with shutouts in back-to-back starts. Additionally, Wedgewood posted a 6-0-1 record with a .948 save percentage and a shutout which was sandwiched between Blackwood’s two outings where he didn’t allow a goal. That means Blackwood and Wedgewood combined to post a shutout in three-consecutive games in the midst of a franchise-record shutout streak spanning 221:42 of gametime.

The duo’s success continued in December, when Wedgewood went 4-0-1 with a .913 save percentage and a shutout while Blackwood posted an 8-1-0 record along with a .923 save percentage.  

In the 2026 section of the regular season, Blackwood and Wedgewood combined to allow just 2.20 goals per game across 44 appearances, helping the Avalanche post a 25-16-3 record to secure the Central Division and Presidents’ Trophy. One game that stood out was Colorado’s 2-0 win against the Dallas Stars on April 4th. Entering play, Colorado led Dallas by six points with two games in hand, meaning the Avalanche had two more games remaining than the Stars. After Wedgewood’s 17-save shutout helped the Avs win, Colorado took an eight-point lead in the Central and would clinch the division three days later.

Wedgewood’s excellent play continued into the playoffs, where he posted a .950 save percentage in his first four playoff starts and first-career postseason wins in Round One against the Los Angeles Kings. In Round Two against the Minnesota, Blackwood made his playoff debut in Game Four, stopping 19 of the 21 shots he faced to help the Avalanche take a 3-1 series lead.

In Game Five of Round Two, Wedgewood entered the game in relief and stopped seven shots in the Avs’ series-clinching three-goal comeback win.  

After a campaign of shutouts, big saves and even bigger wins, the 2025-26 season was the year of The Lumberyard.