Bernier staked his claim to save of the year with a lunging stick stop on Anaheim Ducks center Ryan Kesler with 10:34 left in the second period at Pepsi Center to not only keep the puck out of the net, but eventually lead to a rush that would see teammate Nathan MacKinnon score at the other end of the ice.
With the Avalanche leading 1-0, Kesler took a cross-crease pass on his backhand from Jakob Silfverberg and had nothing but an open net in front of him, but Bernier dove across and got his stick on the puck. Anaheim defenseman Cam Fowler would then get the puck and shoot it wide, starting an Avalanche rush that ended when Gabriel Landeskog found MacKinnon, who scored his 20th goal of the season.
