DENVER (AP) Logan O’Connor scored for the first time in a year, Scott Wedgewood stopped 24 shots in his first Stanley Cup playoffs start and the top-seeded Colorado Avalanche beat the Los Angeles Kings 2-1 in Game 1 on Sunday.
O’Connor’s third-period tally was his first since Game 4 of a playoff series against Dallas on April 26. He missed most of this season with a hip injury. Artturi Lehkonen had a second-period goal for the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Avalanche.
“Super happy to get it out of the way,” said O’Connor, who underwent hip surgery in early June. “For us, our game translates well to the playoffs. It’s a lot of simplicity and muck it up and just wear teams down. It was nice to get that one out of the way and finish the job off.”
Wedgewood got the nod in net over Mackenzie Blackwood after leading the league in goals-against average and save percentage. Wedgewood made four career playoff appearances in relief before Sunday’s start.
At 33 years, 248 days old, Wedgewood became the third-oldest goaltender in league history to pick up a win in his first career playoff start, according to NHL stats.
“Obviously, a long career to get to this point,” Wedgwood cracked.
Game 2 is Tuesday night in Denver.
Artemi Panarin scored a power-play goal with 2:22 left to make it 2-1. Shortly after, forward Joel Armia was called for high-sticking and the Kings were unable to tie it up.
“We were kind of coming there late and couldn’t get enough,” forward Scott Laughton said.
Anton Forsberg stopped 28 shots in his NHL postseason debut.
“We’re comfortable in low-scoring games,” Kings defenseman Mikey Anderson said. “We’ve got to try and keep it tight.”
Nathan MacKinnon had an assist on Lehkonen’s goal to give him 32 career points in Game 1s. He trails only Joe Sakic (42) for the most Game-1 points in franchise history.
The game got chippy in the third period, with Cale Makar taking a shove to the back by Adrian Kempe. Captain Gabriel Landeskog later stood up for Makar and got into it with Kempe. Both drew roughing calls.
There were a combined 84 hits.
“We know teams are going to want to push us out of games,” said O’Connor, whose team was 0 for 4 on the power play. “We feel as though we can push back just as hard. That’s one great thing about our group: the versatility within our locker room. You want to go a 1-0 game? We like to think we can beat you at that. Track meet, if it happens? We’ve got that. Physicality, we have guys who are willing to step up.”
Colorado nearly scored earlier in the second when O’Connor sent a shot past Forsberg. But as the goal horn sounded, the officials signaled no goal. It was ruled Jack Drury made contact with Forsberg following a collision with Drew Doughty. The Avalanche challenged but the call stood.
“I’d like to see it count,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “They saw it different – not losing any sleep over it.”
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This story has been corrected to show Logan O’Connor’s last goal was April 26.
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