Home HOCKEY NHL Avalanche Beat Kings, Take 3-0 Series Lead Behind Wedgewood

Avalanche Beat Kings, Take 3-0 Series Lead Behind Wedgewood

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Avalanche Vs Kings
Wedgewood, Landeskog lead Avs past Kings for commanding 3-0

Wedgewood allows 2 or fewer for third straight game while Landeskog and Makar climb franchise playoff record books in Colorado's 4-2 Game 3 win over LA.


Scott Wedgewood stays hot with 24 saves as Colorado downs LA 4-2 in Game 3. Landeskog, Makar, Lehkonen and Nelson score to put Avs one win from a sweep...


Colorado beat Los Angeles 4-2 in Game 3 Thursday night, putting the Avalanche one win from a series sweep.

  
Avalanche goalie Scott Wedgewood, Carolina’s Frederik Andersen, and Philadelphia’s Dan Vladar are the only playoff netminders yet to give up more than two goals in each of their first three games.

 
Each of their teams is now one victory away from completing a series sweep.


Wedgewood has stopped exactly 24 shots in all three playoff games against the Kings so far.


The Avs and Kings will face off in Game 4 on Sunday, April 26.



Quick start for Colorado

The Avalanche struck fast, finding the net just five minutes after the opening faceoff.


Gabriel Landeskog buried his second goal of the postseason to put Colorado up 1-0 early. That’s his fifth career playoff game-opening goal, ranking him sixth all-time for the franchise behind Joe Sakic (16), Peter Forsberg (12), Rob Blake (8), Nathan MacKinnon (8), and Milan Hejduk (7).

 
Both teams went 0-for-1 on the power play, and the low penalty count continued into the second period, especially compared to other series.

  
About six minutes into the second, the Kings got their first goal of the night.

 
Trevor Moore made it 1-1 with his first goal of the playoffs. Quinton Byfield assisted on the goal, becoming the fastest King to reach 10 career playoff assists in 22 games since Anze Kopitar (15), Dustin Brown (19), and Drew Doughty (20) reached it in 2012.


 
 
But Colorado pushed back, going up 2-1 for the third straight game.


Cale Makar scored his first of the playoffs to restore Colorado’s one-goal lead. That’s his 32nd career playoff go-ahead goal, fourth in franchise history behind Joe Sakic (77), Peter Forsberg (53), and MacKinnon (34).




Entering the third, the teams had only 10 total penalty minutes. Despite trailing, the Kings were outshooting Colorado 19-15.


The teams played 4-on-4 at the 14-minute mark of the second after MacKinnon drew an embellishment call, but neither side capitalized on the open ice.




Colorado pushed the lead to two goals with a short-handed strike nearly eight minutes into the third.


Artturi Lehkonen netted his second of the playoffs to make it 3-2 Colorado. He’s now the 12th Finnish player in NHL history to reach 50 career playoff points.




But the Kings battled back in front of their home fans. After an 0-for-3 start on the power play, LA finally converted on their fourth chance.


Adrian Kempe cut it to 3-2 with under five minutes left. It marked the first multi-goal game for the Kings in the series.




It wasn’t enough for LA, as Brock Nelson hit the empty net for his first of the playoffs to seal a 4-2 Avalanche win. Colorado now needs one more victory to complete a four-game sweep of the Kings.







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