Ross Colton scored for the Avalanche, the No. 1 seed from the Central Division and the Western Conference. Wedgewood made 22 saves.
“You know you’re running into some adversity and you’re going to lose some games in the playoffs. That’s just facts,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “We can’t ride the emotional roller coaster like fans, right? You lose Game 1, you’re getting swept. If we win Game 1, we’re sweeping them. Like, that’s not reality. You have to deal with the task at hand and what’s to come. We’re not going to try and win four games the next night in Vegas. We’re trying to win one. It can sound cliche, but that’s how we approach it. Focus on our process, what we need to do. We played a great hockey game tonight. So did they. It could go either way.
“You’re not giving up on your season because all of a sudden you lost two games in the playoffs. There’s still lots of hockey to be played.”
The Avalanche were without defenseman Cale Makar, who missed his second straight game with an upper-body injury.
Colton gave Colorado a 1-0 lead at 16:59 of the first period. After Vegas defenseman Kaedan Korczak blocked Brent Burns’ point shot, Colton skated around from behind the net, settled a bouncing puck and scored with a wrist shot from the slot that went short side over Hart’s left arm.
“We dug a hole. It’s on us,” Avalanche forward Logan O’Connor said. “We’ve got to reset, go into Vegas and do the same thing they did to us. It starts with one game and just chip away at this thing. There are things we can learn from that game. I think we got away from our game plan in the third period. We let them hang around throughout the game and they’re going to capitalize on their opportunities.”
Colorado captain Gabriel Landeskog said, “I liked our game a lot. There’s not a lot of comfort in saying that, I guess, after a loss. But at the end of the day we’ll regroup.”
Eichel tied it 1-1 at 9:15 of the third. Dorofeyev tipped Barbashev’s crossing pass to Eichel in the neutral zone, and Eichel took the puck straight to the right face-off dot before scoring with a wrist shot that went over Wedgewood’s right leg and in off the far post.
“I think it just gave us some life,” Vegas defenseman Noah Hanifin said. “After that second period it was a little bit of a grind, and I think just when he scored that goal it just gave us some life. And from there we got rolling a bit.”
Vegas defenseman Brayden McNabb left the game at 13:40 of the first after a hit on Colorado defenseman Sam Malinski. He missed the second period but returned for the third and finished out the game.
The Golden Knights were without forward and captain Mark Stone for a fifth straight game due to a lower-body injury.
NOTES: Eichel’s goal made him the third-fastest United States-born player in NHL history to reach 60 career Stanley Cup Playoff points (54 games), behind Kevin Stevens (46 games) and Brian Leetch (49 games). He has 61 playoff points (12 goals, 49 assists). … The Golden Knights earned their fourth third-period comeback win of the playoffs, their most in a postseason. … The Avalanche had been 45-0-0 when leading after two periods in the regular season and playoffs combined, which marked the most wins of any team, and were 5-0 in the playoffs when scoring first.
