It may have been his proverbial first rodeo, but Scott Wedgewood was excellent in his first four career playoff starts, helping the Colorado Avalanche to move past the L.A. Kings in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Kings couldn't withstand the Avalanche
The Avs came in as the heavy favorites as the top-seeded team in the league, while the Kings hoped that mid-season acquisition Artemi Panarin would help them run the score up to compete with the top team in the league. However, Wedgewood has been having a career season and posted a .950 sv% in the four game series.
L.A never had more than two goals in a game, and while that isn't all down to Wedgewood, the veteran proved he's got the right tools to carry this team further along into the playoffs. On the other hand, Panarin certainly was L.A.'s best player, with two goals and an assist in the series.
The Avs defense certainly made things easier on the 33-year-old Wedgewood in his first career postseason outing, with over half of the King's goals in the series coming on the power play, and two of them in 6-on-4 play. However, the league's no.1 team by scoring differential certainly wasn't going to step off the gas now that the game's are getting a little tighter. Colorado won the last two games of the series with a +3 scoring margin, and over half of the 20 skaters who suited up across the series tallied a point.