this year\u2019s general manager meetings.<\/a> It likely will be a point of conversation at some other time these playoffs. Bednar has expressed confusion over goaltender interference rulings multiple times this season, at one point telling reporters, \u201cI have no idea what it is, still to this day.\u201d He said he wasn\u2019t surprised he lost the challenge Sunday.<\/p>\nThe sequence didn\u2019t end up hurting the Avalanche, who killed the ensuing Kings\u2019 penalty. Even if the goal didn\u2019t count, the overturned goal showed how Colorado\u2019s fourth line of Joel Kiviranta, Drury and O\u2019Connor can be effective. None of the three are elite finishers \u2014 Kiviranta is the only one with more than 15 goals in a season (16 in 2024-25) \u2014 but they can forecheck hard, defend effectively and won\u2019t shy away from getting to the net. With that line on the ice, Colorado led 12-4 in five-on-five shot attempts and had 52.29 of the expected goals, per Natural Stat Trick.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard work and relentlessness,\u201d Bednar said. \u201cEvery time they hit the ice, they\u2019re giving it everything they got, and they\u2019re playing to the identity of that line and of each other, and they made a huge impact. \u2026 They spent the bulk of their time playing in the offensive zone and pursuing pucks. And I think that\u2019s exactly what we need from them.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Connor\u2019s bottom-six line during the 2022 playoffs, which included now-retired Darren Helm and Andrew Cogliano, played a key role in the Avalanche winning the Stanley Cup. Colorado\u2019s depth should be an advantage again these playoffs, just as the fourth line showed against the Kings.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Connor, who missed all but 13 games this season recovering from hip surgery, is a big reason why. He didn\u2019t score a goal during the regular season but picked up Sunday where he left off in a strong 2025 postseason. Undeterred by the overturned goal, he seized a loose puck early in the third, burst past Cody Ceci in the offensive zone and finished past Forsberg with a wrister. He raised his stick in celebration.<\/p>\n
\u201cOC\u2019s so fast,\u201d Drury said. \u201cI feel like he does that a lot, where he isn\u2019t even in the picture, and then all of a sudden, he has the puck.\u201d<\/p>\n
Drury, who had an assist on the play, didn\u2019t see the goal play out live. After flinging the puck into the offensive zone, he and Kings winger Jeff Malott got tangled along the benches. They were shoving each other as O\u2019Connor completed his slick finish. The goal horn let Drury know the result.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was fired up,\u201d Drury said. \u201cI think we\u2019d had some good shifts, and it was just great for OC to see that go in. He\u2019s worked really hard to come back and I think he\u2019s been really good the last few games.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Connor is the only member of his line with a Stanley Cup ring, but the other two have plenty of experience. Kiviranta made the Cup Final with Dallas in 2020 \u2014 he had a Game 7 hat trick, complete with an overtime winner, against Colorado in the Western Conference semifinals that year \u2014 and Drury reached the Eastern Conference final with Carolina in 2023. The trio won\u2019t score every game like it did against Los Angeles, but it should be able to provide exactly what Bednar needs. He called it a line he \u201ccan trust against anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s all because of the hard work and commitment that they have,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Added O\u2019Connor: \u201cOur game translates well to playoffs. It\u2019s a lot of simplicity and muck-it-up and just wear teams down.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DENVER \u2014 Given the amount of goaltender interference commotion in the NHL this season, a controversial ruling was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556613,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5116],"tags":[193,192,144,5277,5,145,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-556770","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-colorado-avalanche","8":"tag-avalanche","9":"tag-colorado","10":"tag-colorado-avalanche","11":"tag-coloradoavalanche","12":"tag-hockey","13":"tag-los-angeles-kings","14":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116437861293420484","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=556770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556770\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}