Avalanche are shockingly done after Vegas completes dominant sweep

The Colorado Avalanche have been swept out of the Western Conference Final by the Vegas Golden Knights in a shocking result.

Vegas completed the sweep with a 2-1 victory on Tuesday night, advancing to the Stanley Cup Final while the Avs are done after it feels like the series just began.

And in Game 4, it was a brutal lack of offense from the Avalanche.

They went a 25-minute stretch between the second and third periods with only two shots on goal. Cale Makar had a decent look at the start of the third, but that was pretty much it, until captain Gabriel Landeskog scored with 2:03 go to make it 2-1 Vegas. The Avalanche tried to make a push late with Mackenzie Blackwood on the bench, but it wasn’t to be.

And with just under six minutes to go, the Knights basically iced the game and series with a tally from Cole Smith, tipping the puck past Blackwood. He got the start in net for the Avs and actually played really well — relieving Scott Wedgewood after he lost the first three games of the series.

The second period was marked by some incredible saves by Blackwood that kept the Avalanche in the game. He came up big multiple times to keep the deficit at only one goal. The biggest highlights were two saves on Knights forward Pavel Dorofeyev on a Vegas power play.

It was a questionable penalty against Landeskog that led to the Knights having the extra attacker. It looked the refs missed interference committed against Colorado forward Martin Necas, a scary hit that had him grabbing his knee before going to the locker room. Necas would return a few minutes later.

And the Avalanche bench also thought the officials blew a potential trip against Nathan MacKinnon, plus Vegas having six guys on the ice that was missed. Alas, Blackwood kept the Avs afloat after 40 minutes.

In the first period it was Vegas drawing blood only 4:42 into the game. The Avalanche were trying to be aggressive on offense and it was hard to blame them down 3-0 in the series.

But everyone got caught pinching in, which led to a Mark Stone breakaway off a beautiful pass from Brayden McNabb. The Knights captain beat Blackwood clean and that gave Vegas a 1-0 lead.

The Avalanche would have a great look later in the first, but again it was Brock Nelson getting stoned by Knights goaltender Carter Hart. Nelson didn’t have a goal in these playoffs that didn’t come against an empty net and that pattern continued as he couldn’t convert on a breakaway.

And that failure from Nelson kind of sums things up. The Avs needed more from their best players all series long and didn’t get it. Yes, MacKinnon and  Makar were banged up, but Colorado desired better from them, Nelson, Necas, Artturi Lehkonen, etc..

Instead of preparing to play in their first Stanley Cup Final since 2022, a summer full of questions will begin way sooner than anyone thought possible only a week ago.

It’s one thing to lose in the Western Conference Final, it’s another to get swept and embarrassed. But that’s the reality for the Avalanche who will be left picking up the pieces of a stunning result and looking for answers.

We’ll see if it costs head coach Jared Bednar his job or if it leads the front office to making a franchise-altering trade.

It feels like there should be consequences for this failure. Whether or not those come remains to be seen.

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