DENVER, May 20th, 2026– How do you eat an elephant? Piece by piece.
The Colorado Avalanche are the mightiest of elephants, and the Vegas Golden Knights took their first bite on Wednesday with a 4-2 victory in Game 1 of the Western Conference Final. This was just Colorado’s second loss of the postseason.
Things didn’t look very promising early on. The Avalanche came in waves, hemming the Golden Knights into the zone for the first few minutes of the game. The Golden Knights survived the push and considerably improved their play for the rest of the period.
In the second period, the Avalanche held a slight edge in possession. They outshot the Golden Knights 15-10 and generated 12 scoring chances against nine from Vegas.
The Golden Knights broke the ice at 12:29 in the second period. Brandon Saad found Dylan Coghlan in the slot, and Coghlan beat Scott Wedgewood five-hole.
The Golden Knights doubled their lead on the power play less than three minutes later. Mitch Marner danced around Brent Burns and stretched to corral the puck when it rolled off his stick. He slid a no-look pass by Logan O’Connor to find Pavel Dorofeyev all alone in the slot, and Dorofeyev snapped a shot past Scott Wedgewood short-side.
The Golden Knights added another just 94 seconds into the third. As Ben Hutton’s penalty expired, Brett Howden blocked Sam Malinski’s shot from the point. The puck bounced out to Hutton as he stepped out of the box, who took off on a 2-on-1 with Howden. Scott Wedgewood made the save on Hutton’s shot, and Howden gloved down the rebound and poked it home.
From that point on, cracks began to show in the Golden Knights’ game. The Avalanche outshot Vegas 13-8, and generated 10 high-danger scoring chances while holding the Golden Knights to just one.
The Avalanche got on the board at 5:53 in the third. Val Nichushkin blocked a shot in the defensive zone and carried the puck out of the zone on an odd-man rush. As Nichushkin entered the offensive zone, Ben Hutton and Dylan Coghlan collided, taking themselves out of the play and effectively giving Colorado a 3-on-0. Nichushkin got a pass through to Ross Colton, drove the net, and redirected Colton’s feed between his legs and past Carter Hart.
The crowd came alive after Nichushkin’s goal and stayed raucous for the remainder of the game. Shea Theodore took a late high-sticking penalty, and the Avalanche pulled Scott Wedgewood for a 6-on-4 opportunity.
The Avalanche pulled to within one at 17:39 in the third. Devon Toews left the puck for Nathan MacKinnon in the defensive zone, and the center raced up ice. He cut across the blue line, drove deeper into the zone, and juked Brayden McNabb out of his skates. MacKinnon drifted up to the goal line and set Gabriel Landeskog up for a backdoor tap-in.
Down by only a goal with 2:02 remaining, the Avalanche again pulled Wedgewood for the extra attacker. They recorded just one shot on goal, and the puck ended up on the stick of Jack Eichel. Eichel’s bid at the empty net went wide, but Nic Dowd won the race to the loose puck and slammed it home.
“We had some major inconsistencies,” said head coach John Tortorella following the 4-2 win. “We didn't play a flawless game by any means. We got some timely goals, and we got some great saves at key times. We have work to do, and it’s nice to get the first one under your belt, to get a win. But we have plenty of work to do when we’re playing against that team.”