Avalanche Score WCF Game 1 Win But At A Cost

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While Colorado came out with an 8-6 win in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals – at one point late in the second period pushing to a four goal lead – it could end up a footnote to Darcy Kuemper’s injury by the time this series has wrapped. Kuemper was forced out with an upper-body injury in the second period, with Pavel Francouz taking over in-crease. We’ll have to wait and see on Kuemper’s status ahead of Thursday’s Game 2. If there is any soft consolation on this one, it’s that Francouz turned in respectable regular-season numbers, albeit in scattered appearances. And if we are being honest with ourselves (and you, dear reader), Kuemper has had an up-and-down postseason even as the Avalanche have reached the conference finals in impressive fashion. You never want to lose your starting netminder, but Colorado was always going to win or lose this one on team strength, rather than the strength of a star goalie — Kuemper is solid, but he’s not a world-beater. If you’re looking for the star goalie affair, the Eastern Conference Finals matchup between New York’s Igor Shesterkin and Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy should do the trick and then some.

Colorado Avalanche 8 Edmonton Oilers 6

— Prior to exiting with his upper-body injury, Kuemper had yielded a pair of first-period goals to Evander Kane and Zach Hyman and an early-second-period goal to Ryan McLeod. He exited action just over seven minutes into the second period, having made 13-of-16 stops. All eyes on the injury status, here, but we’ll just leave the note that Kuemper has now given up three or more goals in four of his last six playoff starts. His absence might not hurt as much as it would outwardly seem?

— Pavel Francouz finished up making 18 stops on 21 attempts after…