Jared Bednar: Avalanche win over Kings Thursday was “our best one in a while”

The Colorado Avalanche were firing on all cylinders on Thursday night at Ball Arena as the team pulled away after the first period and never looked back in a 4-0 win. Cale Makar recorded his 500th career point (postseason included), Logan O’Connor tallied his 100th career point and Martin Necas found the back of the net twice.

After the game was knotted at zero for the first 25 minutes of action, a quick burst of goals put the Avs ahead. While the offense was playing very well, the defense is what shined all night long for Jared Bednar’s squad.

“I didn’t think we had many lapses in there, a really good defensive effort right from the drop of the puck,” Bednar said after the win. “We did a nice job suppressing chances, dangerous chances especially. Not a lot of breakdowns … did a decent job getting back above pucks out of the offensive zone off our forecheck … I thought our D had a really good night back there.”

The Kings, currently second in the Pacific Division, came into the game riding a four-game win streak in which they were averaging five goals per game. The Avalanche held them to just 22 shots on goal and killed all three of their power play opportunities. Meanwhile, Colorado converted on two of its three power play chances.

“Start to finish, that’s our best one in a while,” Bednar said. “We’ve played some solid defensive games, we’ve had like little windows of five minutes here and there that weren’t quite as strong as we’d like them to be, but today we finished the job in the third period so it was good effort.”

Everyone was on the same page defensively all night, and it showed when Devon Toews stepped in the net to save a goal while Mackenzie Blackwood was sprawled out on the ice, showing shades of Josh Manson in the 2022 playoffs.

Don't worry, we didn't forget about this play from Devon 🤯#GoAvsGo pic.twitter.com/h1MhTTCAYt

— Colorado Avalanche (@Avalanche) March 28, 2025

The win put the Avalanche six points ahead of the Minnesota Wild for third place in the Central Division. Next up, the St. Louis Blues come to town Saturday for a divisional matchup at Ball Arena.

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