Avalanche edge Kings
- The Colorado Avalanche beat the Los Angeles Kings 2-1 in Game 1 of their first-round series. - The final score was 2-1 in favor of Colorado in Denver. - The result opened Colorado’s playoff pursuit and was captured in postgame photo and tactical coverage ( ).
Colorado opened its first-round series by beating Los Angeles 2-1 on April 19 at Ball Arena, with Scott Wedgewood stopping 24 shots in his first Stanley Cup playoff start. (nhl.com) Artturi Lehkonen broke the scoreless game at 15:29 of the second period off a Nathan MacKinnon setup, and Logan O’Connor made it 2-0 at 5:50 of the third for his first goal in a year. (hockey-reference.com) Los Angeles got within one on an Artemi Panarin power-play goal at 17:38 of the third, assisted by Alex Laferriere and Brandt Clarke, but Anton Forsberg still finished with 28 saves in the loss. (hockey-reference.com) The opener put the top-seeded Avalanche ahead 1-0 in a Western Conference first-round matchup after Colorado finished the regular season 55-16-11. Los Angeles entered the series at 35-27-20. (espn.com) Colorado came in with the National Hockey League’s best regular-season record and home ice in the series, while Los Angeles arrived with one of the league’s lower-scoring playoff resumes at 2.68 goals per game. (heavy.com, nhl.com) The game stayed tight partly because an early Colorado goal was wiped out on review, leaving the teams scoreless until late in the second period. That kept pressure on both goaltenders and turned the final two minutes into Los Angeles’ best push. (foxsports.com, nhl.com) For Colorado, the immediate lift was in net: Wedgewood handled his first playoff start and protected a one-goal lead after Panarin’s late strike. For Los Angeles, the path back is straightforward after Game 1 — generate more than 25 shots and solve a series that opened on Colorado’s terms. (nhl.com, hockey-reference.com)
