Scott Wedgewood’s incredible playoff run hit a major speed bump in Saturday’s Game 3.
The Colorado Avalanche netminder was pulled less than five minutes into the second period after the Minnesota Wild scored their third goal of the game on their 12th shot.
Wedgewood was beaten by Wild stars Kirill Kaprizov and Quinn Hughes just 1:33 apart in the first period, as Minnesota came out of the gates quickly, looking to avoid a 3-0 deficit in the series.
But Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar stuck with Wedgewood to open the second period until Ryan Hartman batted a floating puck into the net on the power play, giving Minnesota a 3-0 lead.
Mackenzie Blackwood took over in the Colorado crease. It’s the first time he has been called upon by the Avalanche in these playoffs after serving as the team’s starter during its first-round loss in 2024-25.
Wedgewood had allowed more than two goals just once in Colorado’s first six games of this post-season. He entered Saturday’s game with a playoff save percentage of .923 and a goals-against average of 2.12 between the Avalanche’s sweep of the Los Angeles Kings and their wins over the Wild in Games 1 and 2.
He and Blackwood took home the William M. Jennings Trophy in the regular season for backstopping the Avalanche to the fewest goals against in 2025-26.
Wedgewood had a 31-6-6 record, .921 save percentage and 2.02 goals-against average over his 45 regular-season contests.