Wedgewood Pulled After 12 Shots, Three Goals — Colorado's Goalie Carousel Reshapes Game 4 Props

Scott Wedgewood is in crisis. As ESPN reported, the Colorado Avalanche pulled their Game 1-through-3 starter midway through the second period of a 5-1 Game 3 loss to Minnesota, after he surrendered three goals on just 12 shots — a .750 save percentage in 24:23 of work. Mackenzie Blackwood absorbed the remainder of the wreckage, stopping 12 of 13 over the final 32-plus minutes. Coach Jared Bednar, when pressed on Game 4, offered nothing definitive: 'We'll have a decision to make, but there's a decision to make every night.' That is not the language of a coach confident in his starter.

The collapse is jarring against Wedgewood's résumé. He led the entire NHL this regular season with a 2.02 GAA and .921 save percentage, going 31-6-6 alongside Blackwood in a tandem that helped Colorado lock up the league's best record. But the postseason is surfacing a different version. He allowed six goals in the Avs' wild 9-6 Game 1 victory — a result that masked the damage — and now three on 12 in a game that was never competitive. The box score says 9 goals allowed across three games. The underlying reads say his positioning and aggression are costing him.

Bednar's own words are the tell. He cited Wedgewood being 'too aggressive' on both the Kirill Kaprizov goal — where he overcommitted on a poke check and got lifted — and the Mats Zuccarello shot that deflected off Devon Toews and through a net Wedgewood had vacated by playing too deep. These aren't fluky deflections that any goalie eats; these are positioning breakdowns that schematically favor shooters. Minnesota, led by Kaprizov's three-point night, now has the blueprint. The Wild know how to make Wedgewood bite early and hard.

For Game 4 props, the goaltending uncertainty is the single largest variable on the board. If Blackwood gets the start — the likelier outcome given Bednar's hedged language and Blackwood's clean 32-minute audition — his saves prop becomes the most actionable number of the night. Blackwood faces a Wild offense averaging well over 30 shots per game at home this postseason; a saves line in the 26-28 range is reasonable to target the over on if he draws the assignment. Conversely, if Wedgewood returns, Colorado's goals-against and Minnesota's team total both warrant upward pressure — the Wild put up 5 on him in 45 minutes across Games 2 and 3 combined. Kaprizov, who is operating in space against an overly aggressive Colorado netminder, also becomes a stronger anytime-goal and points prop target regardless of who starts.

Colorado still leads this series 2-1 and remains a legitimate Cup contender when Nathan MacKinnon and the offense are firing. But the team's postseason identity was built on Wedgewood's steadiness, and that foundation cracked publicly Saturday night. Until Bednar names a Game 4 starter, every Avalanche goalie-adjacent number — saves, goals against, Wild team total — carries elevated uncertainty. In a market that often underprices in-series goalie switches, that uncertainty is where the edge lives.