Avalanche most to blame for stunning West Final sweep vs. Golden Knights

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Avalanche most to blame for stunning West Final sweep vs. Golden Knights

Steve Silverman, ClutchPoints · ClutchPoints

Wed, May 27, 2026 ·

5 min read

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The Colorado Avalanche were not only the favorites to win the Stanley Cup at the start of the playoffs, many NHL observers looked at the Avs as a team that might rank with the best teams in recent history. Much of that was due to the sensational start the team had in the first half of the season. The Avalanche had just two regulation losses through January 3 when their record stood at 31-2-7.

But their championship aspirations and talk of becoming an all-time great team fell by the wayside when they were swept in the Western Conference Finals by the Vegas Golden Knights . The season that once looked so glorious fell apart as the explosive Avs were incapable of holding down the opportunistic Golden Knights with any kind of consistency. Even when the Avs broke out to a 3-0 lead in the first period of Game 3 in Las Vegas, they could not hold that advantage and ended up losing the game in regulation.

The confidence they displayed while holding on to the league's top spot from early November disappeared against the VGK. They had a dominant 121 points during the regular season and they ranked first with an average of 3.63 goals per game thanks in large part to superstar Nathan MacKinnon and his league-leading 53 goals. They were also first in goals against, allowing just 2.40 goals per game.

It there was one area that was questionable during the regular season, it was their power play. Despite the presence of MacKinnon, Cale Makar , Marty Necas, Devon Toews and Gabriel Landeskog , the Avs converted just 17.1 percent of their man-advantage opportunities.

That questionable area would become a full-fledged weakness against the Golden Knights.

Offense disappeared for long stretches against the VGK

The Avalanche came into the series against Vegas on a high note. They overcame a 3-0 deficit in Game 5 of their second-round series against the Minnesota Wild and rallied to win the game eliminate the upset-minded Wild by a 4-3 margin in overtime.

That appeared to give Jared Bednar's team quite a bit of juice heading into the series against John Tortorella and the Golden Knights. While Vegas had beaten the Utah Mammoth and the Anaheim Ducks in the first two rounds, the Avs were the much stronger team based on regular-season achievements. Vegas (95 regular-season points) had flirted with missing the playoffs and that's why Bruce Cassidy was fired late in the season and Tortorella was hired in the finals days of March to take over behind the bench.

Vegas and Colorado were scoreless more than halfway through Game 1. The Golden Knights broke on top when they got a pair of goals from Dylan Coghlen and Pavel Dorofeyev less than three minutes apart. Vegas added to the lead early in the third period. The Avs did not get on the scoreboard until Val Nichushkin scored shortly before the six-minute mark and Gabriel Landeskog added a goal with less than three minutes to go. That's where the rally ended and Vegas had broken through on Colorado ice.

The Avs came out on fire in Game 2, but the only goal they could muster was a late first period score by Ross Colton . The Avs could not get another puck by Vegas goalie Carter Hart the rest of the game. The Golden Knights were blanked through two periods, but Jack Eichel and Ivan Barbashev scored just over two minutes apart midway through the third period. Barbashev would close out the scoring with an empty-net goal.

Full-fledged panic after consecutive home losses

Mandatory Credit: Isaiah J. Downing-Imagn Images

The Avs tried to play it cool as the series headed to Vegas, but there was no explanation from Bednar or anyone else as to why Colorado couldn't score. Makar had missed the opening two games with an upper-body injury, but MacKinnon and Necas were flying around at full speed. Neither one could dent the net.

Bednar did not have any answers either. He tried to tweak his lines, but his moves were ineffective. The Golden Knights were playing excellent team hockey under the normally irascible Tortorella and they were playing brilliant defense in front of Hart.

The Avs found their game for a brief stretch in the first period of Game 3 when Landeskog, Nazem Kadri and Jack Drury scored. A few other key saves by Hart kept the score from getting out of hand.

However, the Colorado offense shut down after the opening 20 minutes and Vegas appeared rejuvenated. Team leader Mark Stone scored on the power play just 19 seconds in and the VGK tied the score shortly after the midway point of the second period. Thomas Hertl scored the go-ahead goal in the third period before Brett Howden clinched the victory with an empty netter.

Big stars were no-shows for Avs

The Avs were eliminated 2-1 Tuesday night as Landeskog scored the only goal late in the third period after a deft tip. However, MacKinnon, Makar and Necas were unable to score a single goal throughout the series. MacKinnon had two assists in the series and so did Necas, but Makar could not even garner one in the two games he played.

The Golden Knights clearly got hot at the right time of the year, but the Avs were done in because their big guns failed to produce. Bednar needed his top players to be the team's best players, but that did not happen in the sweep at the hands of the Golden Knights

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