{"id":668254,"date":"2026-05-14T05:19:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T05:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/668254\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T05:19:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T05:19:08","slug":"avalanches-closeout-bid-jolted-as-blackwood-pulled-after-three-first-period-goals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/668254\/","title":{"rendered":"Avalanche\u2019s closeout bid jolted as Blackwood pulled after three first-period goals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mackenzie Blackwood<\/a> got the nod in net for the second straight game but he was pulled after allowing three first-period goals 48 hours after a brilliant victory at Minnesota in Game 4.<\/p>\n

Wedgewood, who won his first six starts in his first Stanley Cup playoffs run before losing Game 3 in Minnesota, was perfect in relief in Colorado’s\u00a04-3 series-clinching overtime comeback<\/a>\u00a0that sent the Avalanche to the next round to face either Anaheim or Vegas.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I could have made changes to our lineup with healthy bodies after the first period, I’d have pulled a whole bunch of guys, not just Blackwood,\u201d Colorado coach Jared Bednar said.<\/p>\n

Blackwood surrendered a goal to Marcus Johansson just 34 seconds into the game, then allowed a pair of goals to Nick Foligno sandwiched around a goal by Michael McCarron that was waved off because he\u2019d batted the puck with his right glove.<\/p>\n

It was the only break Blackwood caught on a tough night that looked nothing like his Game 4 masterpiece and for a while gave renewed hope to the Wild.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were losing all over the ice in every aspect,\u201d Bednar said. \u201cWhen it comes to the goalie switch, a regular-season game I would have left Blackwood in there because he was no different than the rest of our team, like we just weren’t good enough. But you’re looking for a spark, and for me that’s a tough situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wedgewood said it was tough coming into an elimination game midstream, but he and Blackwood have split time in goal all season, so this was nothing new.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s no egos,\u201d Wedgewood said. \u201c… He’s on the bench, he’s not sulking. … If it’s me switching to him or him switching for me and giving these guys a little boost, then there’s no ego. There’s no, \u2018It\u2019s got to be me.’\u201d<\/p>\n

For much of the night it looked like Bednar’s juggling of his goaltenders this series was backfiring with the Avalanche losing their stranglehold on the series, the Wild snatching the momentum and Colorado frittering away its pronounced edge in the net.<\/p>\n

With Wedgewood in the net, the Avs played much better in the second period but Parker Kelly was the only one to score. Then, the Wild played terrific defense and the series appeared headed back to St. Paul for Game 6 before the Avalanche scored twice in the final 3 1\/2 minutes of the third period to force overtime.<\/p>\n

Jack Drury made it 3-2 and Nathan McKinnon’s spectacular goal with 1:23 left tied it.<\/p>\n

Deadline addition Brett Kulak ended the game and the series with his first goal in 115 days 3:52 into the extra period.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t think anybody thought this series would end 4-1 just with how good they are,\u201d Wedgewood said. \u201cWe find ways to win games. I’m proud of our group tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mackenzie Blackwood got the nod in net for the second straight game but he was pulled after allowing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":668255,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-668254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=668254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668254\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/668255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=668254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=668254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=668254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}