DENVER — The Colorado Avalanche locked up the final wild card spot with a 5-2 victory against the St. Louis Blues in front of an energized Pepsi Center on Saturday night.
The Avs are officially playoff bound for the first time in four seasons, an incredible feat for a team that finished in last place the year prior.
“It just goes to show you what a group can do,” said captain Gabriel Landeskog. “When you believe in each other and you believe in what we’re trying to accomplish and when you keep working towards that common goal, you know, beautiful things can happen.”
Beautiful indeed.
Everyone knew what was on the line tonight: Win and you’re in.
For Colorado, that meant winning in regulation. For the Blues, who came into Saturday with a one-point lead in the wild card race, a tied game after 60 minutes would be enough to push them into the playoffs.
It was a unique situation that Landeskog said they felt might happen as they came down the stretch.
“That’s the beauty of it. What a blast to come out and just win one game and get in the playoffs.”
In front of a sold-out crowd, the Avalanche skated out to a playoff-like environment for their regular-season finale.
“It honestly felt like a Game 7,” Tyson Barrie told reporters after the victory. “I thought the guys did a good job kind of harnessing the nerves and turning it into energy and I think you saw that in the first period the way we came out.”
After each team let power play opportunities slip away, Samuel Girard put the Avs up 1-0 with 45 seconds left in the first period. Carl Soderburg, who played his 400th NHL game on Saturday, was credited with the assist along with Blake Comeau.
The intensity picked up even more in the second period.
There were massive hits and thrown fists. There were great saves and close calls.
And there were more goals.
The Avs second goal came on the power play as Barrie’s one-timer slapshot ripped past Jake Allen’s extended glove. However, Barrie was as close as close can get to being offsides and the Blues used a Coach’s Challenge in defense. After taking a second look, Barrie’s goal was upheld and St. Louis was issued a minor penalty for delaying the game.
Barrie said that he didn’t know if the goal would count after the lengthy video review.
“Obviously we’re glad it held up. Hopefully we won’t have to make any close calls like that in the future.”
Four minutes later, the Blues sounded the horn when Jaden Schwartz redirected Alex Pietrangelo’s shot on the power play.
Instead of going into panic mode, the Avs stayed the course.
Nathan MacKinnon got his first goal in 10 games, banking a shot off the post to score his 39th goal of the season with 3:02 remaining in the second.
Landeskog and Matt Nieto added two empty-netters in the third to help the Avs close the deal.
Brayden Schenn scored the final goal for the Blues with 38 seconds remaining.
Jonathan Bernier stopped 32 shots in his fourth straight start. Allen made 34 saves against a hungry Avalanche team.
UP NEXT:
The St. Louis Blues (44-32-6) head into the postseason. The Blues streak of six straight playoff appearances comes to an end.
The Colorado Avalanche (43-30-9) will face the Nashville Predators in the first round of the playoffs. They went 0-3-1 against the Stanley Cup favorites this season.
INTERESTING FACTS
Saturday’s home victory was their 28th at the Pepsi Center, tying a franchise record for wins that was set in 2000-01, the same season the Avs won the Cup.
Colorado finished the regular season with 95 points, a 40-point gain from last year’s last place finish. The last team to make that much improvement in one season was the Pittsburgh Penguins. They jumped 47 points from 2005-06 (58) to 2006-07 (105).
