Wedgewood rises to occasion in 1st Stanley Cup Playoff start with Avalanche

Game 2 is here on Tuesday (10 p.m. ET; ESPN, SN360, TVAS, FDSNSC, ALT).

Wedgewood (33 years, 248 days) became the third-oldest goaltender in NHL history to earn a win in his first career playoff start, behind Curtis McElhinney in Game 3 of the 2019 Second Round (35 years, 343 days) and Les Binkley in Game 1 of the 1970 Quarterfinals (35 years, 306 days).

If Wedgewood’s heart rate was up, he wasn’t showing it. When the Kings made pushes and the Avalanche were out of sorts defensively, Wedgewood was there making the necessary saves. When he didn’t face shots for decent amounts of time, he dealt with that, too.

“Regular season-wise you can get into some lulls throughout the game. With the energy of the crowd, energy of the game, what’s at stake (in the playoffs), your mind is always going,” he said. “I rely on my checks. Every time they change, who’s coming up ice, face-off, how many lefty or righties they have, once they leave the zone, who’s where, it’s something I break down and then it just keeps my mind from going into the what-if scenarios or your mental talk.

“It’s always if you’re engaged, you’re going. On a (television) time out or whistles, just kind of flush it. Almost like a golf shot: You’ve got something coming at you, dial in, figure it out, get out of your zone, reset, when the line comes over the boards, what’s the situation, who you got? Just seems to keep my brain from being on all the time and getting exhausted and also being completely out of it, which I have a tendency to do.”