The Colorado Avalanche led from the front all season in the NHL. Now the Avs need to come back to reach the Stanley Cup Final.
The Vegas Golden Knights got goals from a journeyman defenseman and the top two shooters in this postseason en route to an 4-2 victory Wednesday night at Ball Arena in Game 1 of the Western Conference Final. Carter Hart made 36 saves against the Cale Makar-less Avalanche.
“We just weren’t sharp,” Avs star Nathan MacKinnon said. “Execution was poor from everybody. Yeah, just gotta be sharper than that.”
Scott Wedgewood, who replaced Mackenzie Blackwood in an electric Game 5 comeback win to end the previous round, returned to the starting role for the Avs. He made 24 saves.
This is the first time in this postseason that Colorado is behind in a series. The Avalanche were atop the NHL standings every day from Nov. 1 until the end of the season, capturing the Central Division, Western Conference and Presidents’ Trophy as the top team in the league.
The Avs generated plenty of shots on goal, but also missed the net on some of their best opportunities, and Hart made some key saves while the Golden Knights built their lead.
There was hope for a second straight miracle comeback after Colorado scored twice in the third period, but Nic Dowd beat two Avs players in a race for the puck with the home side’s net empty and scored to end any doubt.
“I thought it was good at times and not good enough at others,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “I didn’t love our puck play tonight, like our execution coming out of our zone, through the neutral zone a little bit, even o-zone play. We gave them a handful of odd-man rushes that came off our turnovers and missed execution even if we were doing the right thing.
“I thought we had a lot of juice and energy in the third period to try and fight our way back into it, but we’re going to have to play a full 60 better than we did tonight, especially with the puck.”
Vegas defenseman Dylan Coghlan opened the scoring at 12:29 of the second period. Colorado’s second line had a couple of great looks, but the visitors counter-attacked at the end of a long shift. Valeri Nichushkin went to the bench and Brock Nelson fell down below the goal line, which allowed Vegas a 4-on-3 and the fourth guy in the zone — Coghlan — collected a pass from ex-Avs forward Brandon Saad and had all kinds of space to pick his spot on Scott Wedgewood.
The shot, which went through Wedgewood, fooled the Avalanche goaltender.
“I just read high glove,” Wedgewood said. “He got a lot of pace on it … just hard to close it once you’re spread. I don’t know if it was spinning on his stick, but he got a lot of pace on it. His release just wasn’t going there, so if it was (intended), it was a hell of a fake. Just read one thing and unfortunately wasn’t able to close up in time.”
It was Coghlan’s first career Stanley Cup Playoffs goal, and his first in the NHL since the 2021-22. Coghlan left Vegas after that season, played for Carolina and Winnipeg and came back to the Golden Knights as a free agent in the offseason.
With Ross Colton in the penalty box after Rasmus Andersson sold a roughing penalty in front of his own net, Vegas doubled its lead. Pavel Dorofeyev, one of the league’s best on the power play this season, snapped a shot past Wedgewood at 15:02 of the second. Mitch Marner — the leading point producer in this postseason — made a great play to fend off Logan O’Connor as he skated towards the right corner, and was able to get the puck back to the right circle for Dorofeyev, who scored his playoffs-leading 10th goal.
Dorofeyev now has 47 goals this year between the regular season and playoffs in 95 games, and 24 of them have come with Vegas on the power play.
When Colorado’s second opportunity with the extra man expired early in the third period, Vegas took advantage of a fortuitous bounce to extend its lead. It probably wasn’t a great decision for Sam Malinski to shoot from the top of the zone just as the penalty expired, but his shot was blocked into the neutral zone … and right to Ben Hutton as he came out of the box.
That led to a 2-on-1 for Vegas, and Brett Howden knocked the puck out of the air with his glove but also got his stick on it in the blue paint just before it cross the goal line to make it 3-0 for the visitors.
It was Howden’s ninth goal of this postseason, one behind Dorofeyev for the league lead. No one else has more seven in this tournament.
Nichushkin got the Avs on the board with 14:06 remaining in the third period. Two Vegas defenders collided with each other, leaving Nichushkin open near the front of the net. Nazem Kadri sent the puck to him, and Nichushkin was able to redirect the pass with his stick between his legs for his second goal of this postseason.
Avs captain Gabe Landeskog added Colorado’s second goal with 2:20 left in the third period. With the Avs on the power play and Wedgewood at the bench, MacKinnon undressed Vegas defenseman Brayden McNabb in the right corner with a quick cut, then went to the net and fed Landeskog for his fourth goal of this postseason.
After spending all season working from ahead, the Avs will need to find some answers ahead of a critical Game 2 on Friday night back here at Ball Arena.
“Just our personnel and what we’ve done all year,” Wedgewood said of why his team will be confident. “We bounce right back, clean up a few things and we’ll find ways to score. Honestly, I had no real issues with our game. It was just that they capitalized early and we had to fight back.”
FOOTNOTES: Makar missed the second Stanley Cup Playoffs game of his career, his first since he was suspended for Game 5 against Seattle in 2023. Malinski and Artturi Lehkonen returned to the lineup for the Avs after missing the final two games of the second-round series against the Wild. Mark Stone did not play for Vegas, the fourth straight game he’s missed.
