The most jawdropping goal of the series just happened
Valeri Nichushkin finally got on the board for the Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday night, lighting up Game 1 of the West Final against Vegas with the prettiest finish of the series.
The goal came in the third period. Between the legs. Right through traffic.
For a winger who came into the series carrying real questions about his offensive output, the timing matters. Big.
Nichushkin had been close all postseason. Close, but not finishing.
Through nine playoff games, he was sitting on one goal and three points. Not the line you expect from a top-six forward making $6.125 million.
Jared Bednar kept feeding him minutes anyway. Power play time. Heavy matchups. Top six deployment.
Why this goal flips the pressure back on Vegas
That trust just paid off in the loudest possible way, on the biggest stage Colorado has played on this spring.
The Avalanche walked into this series as the West's top seed. 55-16-11. 121 points. League-best 302 goals scored.
They also went 2-0-1 against Vegas during the regular season, including a wild shootout win in late December.
So the read was simple coming in: Colorado has the firepower, but the secondary scoring needed to wake up.
Nichushkin just answered that call with a highlight nobody saw coming. Through the wickets. Past the goalie.
Here's the clip, and the redirect through his own legs is the kind of thing you watch three times to believe.
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He finished the regular season with 17 goals and 32 assists across 72 games, while playing through stretches where his name barely surfaced on the score sheet.
The playoffs had been more of the same. One goal in nine games. Three points total. Quiet, by his standards.
Then this. In Game 1. Against the team that just shut him down for nearly 60 minutes.
The Avalanche still have to win four games to reach the Cup Final. But the player they need most just looked like himself again.
And if there's one thing Vegas should be worried about heading into Game 2 on Friday, it's that a confident Nichushkin changes what this series looks like.
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LIVE
MAY 20, 2026
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| G | A | PTS | ||
| Dylan Coghlan | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Pavel Dorofeyev | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Nic Dowd | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Brett Howden | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Gabriel Landeskog | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Valeri Nichushkin | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Ross Colton | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Jack Eichel | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Tomas Hertl | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Ben Hutton | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Nathan MacKinnon | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Mitch Marner | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Brandon Saad | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Colton Sissons | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Devon Toews | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Jack Ahcan | - | - | - | |
| Rasmus Andersson | - | - | - | |
| Ivan Barbashev | - | - | - | |
| Brent Burns | - | - | - | |
| Jack Drury | - | - | - | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||