Scott Wedgewood stops 22 shots, Avs beat Kraken 2-0 to break franchise's single-season points mark

DENVER (AP) — Nick Blankenburg scored a second-period goal, Scott Wedgewood made 22 saves for his fourth shutout of the season and the Colorado Avalanche beat the Seattle Kraken 2-0 on Thursday night to break the franchise's single-season points record.

The Avalanche won the Presidents' Trophy with 121 points, eclipsing the total of 119 points set by the 2021-22 squad that went on to win the Stanley Cup.

Colorado hosts the Los Angeles Kings on Sunday to begin the playoffs. The last time the teams played in the postseason was the 2002 conference quarterfinals when the Avalanche won in seven games.

The Kraken missed the playoffs with a final record of 34-37-11.

Blankenburg broke a scoreless game with a late second-period goal. He had a goal in the opening period overturned after Seattle challenged for offside.

Parker Kelly scored in the third period, while Valeri Nichushkin added a pair of assists. Wedgewood won his 31st game of the season. Colorado rested several key players in the season finale, including Nathan MacKinnon, Martin Necas and captain Gabriel Landeskog.

MacKinnon finished with a career-high 53 goals to win the Rocket Richard Trophy as the league’s goal-scoring leader.

The Kraken lost a seventh straight game to Colorado. Victor Ostman made his first NHL start and turned back 33 shots. Ostman's debut was last season in relief.

Seattle and Colorado were a combined 0 for 6 on the power play.

Coach Jared Bednar was back behind the bench for Colorado. He missed the team's recent two-game trip after being hit in the face by a puck last weekend.

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Seattle Kraken center Chandler Stephenson (9) pursues the puck with Colorado Avalanche defenseman Nick Blankenburg (37) in the second period of an NHL hockey game Thursday, April 16, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Seattle Kraken defenseman Joshua Mahura, left, drives past Colorado Avalanche defenseman Nick Blankenburg in the second period of an NHL hockey game Thursday, April 16, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Seattle Kraken goaltender Victor Ostman deflects a shot in the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Colorado Avalanche, Thursday, April 16, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Colorado Avalanche goaltender Scott Wedgewood pulls on his gloves in the second period of an NHL hockey game against the Seattle Kraken, Thursday, April 16, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Australia’s most decorated living veteran, Ben Roberts-Smith, was granted bail Friday 10 days after he was charged with war crimes in the killings of five people while serving in Afghanistan.

Judge Greg Grogin ruled in a Sydney court that the former Special Air Service Regiment corporal had established exceptional circumstances to justify his release from custody. Prosecutors had opposed bail and argued there was a risk that Roberts-Smith would flee Australia or interfere with witnesses and evidence.

Roberts-Smith, 47, was arrested on April 7 and charged with five counts of war crime murder involving the deaths of five Afghans in Uruzgan province in 2009 and 2012.

Australian law defines war crime murder as the intentional killing in a context of armed conflict of a person who is not taking an active part in the hostilities, such as a civilian, prisoner of war or a wounded soldier.

Roberts-Smith was awarded both the Victoria Cross and Medal of Gallantry for his service in Afghanistan and is only the second Australian veteran of the Afghanistan campaign to be charged with a war crime.

The charges follow a military report released in 2020 that found evidence elite SAS and commando regiment troops unlawfully killed 39 Afghan prisoners, farmers and other noncombatants. Around 40,000 Australian military personnel served in Afghanistan between 2001 and 2021, of whom 41 were killed.

Similar allegations against Roberts-Smith were found credible in a civil court case in 2023 when a judge rejected his claims that newspaper articles defamed him.

At that trial, Roberts-Smith testified he had never killed an unarmed Afghan and denied ever committing a war crime. He claimed he has the victim of spiteful fellow soldiers’ lies and of others’ envy of his medals.

But while the civil court found the war crimes allegations were mostly proven on a balance of probabilities, the war crime murder charges would have to be proved in a criminal court to a higher standard of beyond reasonable doubt.

Roberts-Smith is accused of personally shooting dead two victims. He allegedly ordered subordinates to shoot the other three victims.

In opposing bail, prosecutor Simon Buchen described the charges against Roberts-Smith as “among the most serious known to the criminal law.”

Buchen said Roberts-Smith had been ”on the cusp of relocating overseas” without telling authorities when he became aware that prosectors were considering charges.

Roberts-Smith had made “advanced plans to relocate overseas. Consideration was being given to moving to various destinations overseas,” Buchen told the court.

Roberts-Smith faces a potential maximum sentence of life in prison on each conviction. He has yet to enter pleas.

Defense lawyer Slade Howell told the bail hearing Roberts-Smith’s case “may properly be described as exceptional in the sense that it is out of the ordinary.”

“The use of domestic courts to prosecute alleged war crimes committed by a highly decorated Australian soldier deployed overseas repeatedly by the Australian government to fight a war on its behalf is unprecedented and is uncharted legal territory of the common law of this country,” Howell said.

Howell also said Roberts-Smith’s “proceedings will be beset by a multitude of delays, many of which are peculiar to these proceeding.”

Potential delays could arise if prosecutors decide to charge one or more of Roberts-Smith’s fellow veterans, some of whom now live overseas, Howell said.

Roberts-Smith took part in the bail hearing by video link and spoke only when asked by the judge to confirm that he could see and hear proceedings.

FILE - Ben Roberts-Smith arrives at the Federal Court in Sydney, Australia, on June 9, 2021. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft, File)

FILE - Britain's Queen Elizabeth II greets Corp. Ben Roberts-Smith from Australia, who was recently awarded the Victoria Cross, during an audience at Buckingham Palace in London, Nov. 15, 2011. (Anthony Devlin/Pool via AP, File)