Colorado Avalanche sew up playoff spot in St. Louis, but depart after two straight losses to Blues
After the Colorado Avalanche wrapped up their own playoff berth, they helped the St. Louis Blues with theirs.
Slow in mind and legs, forward Gabriel Landeskog said, on Monday night in St. Louis, the Avalanche dropped the regular-season finale between the teams 4-1.
This two-game slide — only Colorado’s second pair of consecutive regulation losses this season — came after the team clinched a playoff spot against St. Louis on April 22.
“Our goal is still to win the division and make sure we’re catching Vegas and put ourselves in a good spot going into the playoffs,” Landeskog said. “Nights like this isn’t nearly good enough.
“We’ve got to make sure by the time playoffs come around, that we’re hitting on all cylinders and playing well and everybody’s feeling good. It’s going to take a lot of hard work. You’re not just going to cruise into the playoffs and expect to hit the ‘on’ switch come first round.”
Coach Jared Bednar referenced playing “on adrenaline” after a pause April 16-20 following multiple players entering COVID-19 protocol.
“I hate losing games on just not being ready to compete, but I think the shutdown has (some) of the things to do with that,” Bednar said.
Nathan MacKinnon kept his point streak alive with a power-play goal Monday, reaching 14 games. Jonas Johansson made 16 saves.
On both first-period goals, the Avalanche were slow to react and the Blues’ scorer found himself alone.
Torey Krug hit Vladimir Tarasenko in the slot and on Tarasenko’s second whack at it, he scored just eight seconds into a power play. Brayden Schenn was open and able to take a feed from Ryan O’Reilly four minutes later and beat Johansson from the faceoff dot.
David Perron had tipped in a Justin Faulk pass to make it 3-0 before the Avalanche responded. Landeskog found MacKinnon lurking on a power play, and while Jordan Binnington (31 saves) slid over to cut off the lower half of the net, MacKinnon had more than enough space high.
Robert Thomas restored the lead 2:29 later and the Blues coasted to the win from there.
Landeskog’s line with MacKinnon and Andre Burakovsky — Mikko Rantanen did not join the team on the road trip due to COVID-19 contact tracing — was on the ice for all three even-strength Blues goals, as was Cale Makar.
“For us, we know what we can do as a line, and we know that this was just a bump in the road and we’ve got to learn from it and get better,” Landeskog said.
The Colorado captain said the team had a talk after the first period, where Colorado was “bad in every single area of the game.”
“It’s just very, very hard to play catchup hockey, especially against a desperate group like that,” Landeskog said.
One of the Avalanche’s best chances in a scoreless but improved third period came when Devon Toews set up Kiefer Sherwood, who made his first NHL appearance since April 2, off the rush.
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