Colorado's Wedgewood records shutout as Avalanche edge Mammoth 1-0

DENVER — For the second straight night, a Utah-based professional sports team fell at Ball Arena. The Mammoth came up short against the Avalanche 1-0, as Scott Wedgewood stole the show in a shutout.

Colorado's Samuel Girard netted the only goal of the game in the second period on a breakaway goal after Vitek Vanecek stopped the first 16 shots that came his way.

The best look of the period for Utah came when Clayton Keller had his own breakaway chance. After initially losing the puck, he got a shot after rebounding off Wedgewood's pad, who gloved the puck after the shot but backed into the crease of the goal while doing so.

After video review, the call on the ice was confirmed since there wasn't enough video evidence to prove the puck crossed the line.

That score held up as both goalies continued to play at a high level, but Wedgewood continued to turn back every Mammoth shot and limited Utah's chance at a win. Utah held the highest scoring offense in the NHL in check outside of the one goal.

The 32 save shutout was the second of the season for Wedgewood and 10th of his career. In the other pipes, Vanecek played one of his best games of the season, recording 25 saves on 26 shots. He filled in well for Karel Vejmelka after a late scratch.

With just under an hour until puck drop, the Mammoth announced Vejmela was a scratch with an upper-body injury. Colten McIntyre was signed as the emergency back up goalie in wake of Vejmelka's injury.

McIntyre became the first Utah native to suit up for the Mammoth as the goaltender from Park City backed up Vanecek in Tuesday's game. Just 21-years-old, McIntyre recently finished playing junior hockey with the Connecticut Roughriders of the Eastern Hockey League.

Keller and Dylan Guenther both tallied five shots in the loss, while Landeskog led Colorada with five shots of his own. The league's leading goal scorer, Nathan MacKinnon, was limited to just one shot on goal.

With the win, the Avalanche now have the record for most points before the holiday break with 61, surpassing the 2006-07 Anaheim Ducks, who had 60.

There wasn't much action in the opening frame of play as game play took a bit to get going for both teams. Vanecek made some key saves early and kept the game scoreless when Colorado went on the game's first power play.

Each team had some good looks near the net in the first period, with Jack McBain nearly getting the scoring started before Wedgewood made a quick reaction to turn McBain away.

Utah also failed to capitalize on its first man advantage after killing Colorado's power play. The Avalanche followed up their own penalty kill with great looks from Gabriel Landeskog and Martin Necas, with Necas hitting the top of the crossbar on a breakaway chance.

The Mammoth return to action on Monday when the team hosts the Nashville Predators in the first game back from the break, giving Vejmelka enough time to recover from his injury.

In the meantime, Vanacek proved he could be relied upon if Vejmelka misses extended time after holding Colorado to just one goal.

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