Avalanche swept from playoffs: What went wrong for Colorado?

Colorado Avalanche coach Jared Bednar's decision to replace goaltender Scott Wedgewood with Mackenzie Blackwood for Game 4 of the Western Conference Final wasn't a bad idea, if only the backup netminder had gotten goal support.

The Vegas Golden Knights completed a 4-0 series sweep of the top-seeded Avalanche with a 2-1 win on Tuesday night and will return to the Stanley Cup Final for the third time in their nine years in the league.

The Avalanche now prepare for a long offseason. They had a dominant regular season, tying for the sixth-highest points by a Presidents’ Trophy winner with 121, going 8-1 in the first two rounds of the postseason while averaging 4.1 goals per game, and then falling flat in the conference final by averaging just 1.75 goals per game.

Though Blackwood dropped to 0-5-1 in six career appearances against the Golden Knights, he said he thought his performance was “good enough to probably get the win” after stopping 24 shots and holding the Knights to just one goal until the third period.

“Obviously, (expletive) sucks no matter how you do it," said Blackwood, when asked if it is harder to accept being swept. “I think losing like that stings a little more. Yeah, that’s going to be pretty frustrating. We are going to have a tough pill to swallow.”

The Avalanche, who were held to one goal for just the third time during the postseason and second time in this series, didn’t get a shot on goal for more than 25 minutes over the second and third periods, as the Golden Knights were deliberate with their checking.

Offensive star and assistant captain Nathan MacKinnon, who led the team with 15 points in the playoffs, finished the series without scoring one goal after netting at least one in six previous playoff games.

Martin Necas, who was second on the team with 12 points during the postseason, had just two assists against Vegas and only one goal during the entire postseason.