Avalanche finish off sweep of Blues, await either Golden Knights or Wild

The Colorado Avalanche advanced to the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the third season in row, arriving in style after a 5-2 victory in St. Louis finished off the third-ever sweep in Avalanche postseason history.

The Blues started the scoring after a scoreless first period when Vladimir Tarasenko finished off a breakaway only a few minutes into the second. From there on, it was all Avalanche. Brandon Saad scored on a power-play to tie it, and then the top line went to work. Gabriel Landeskog scored in the second; Mikko Rantanen followed that in the third to make it a 3-1 Avalanche lead. Tarasenko scored again to tighten the game up, but third Musketeer Nathan MacKinnon and Valeri Nichushkin hit empty-netters in the final minute to put the game — and the series — to bed.

“I thought it was our best game of the series, I liked our game a lot tonight. I think that the details of our checking and our structure were outstanding,” head coach Jared Bednar said. “It was tough to work through all five of our guys tonight; just put a real importance on playing the right way, and checking the right way, and getting back above pucks and making it difficult. We kept their scoring-chances against down tonight, and it was a full, 60-minute effort. I think in the first three games, we had some lapses in our game and some things that I didn’t like, but tonight I liked a lot of it. Maybe not as dangerous as what we can be on the offensive side of things, but we found a way to score enough goals to win the hockey game.”

The notion that the Avalanche offense isn’t as “dangerous” as they can be will send shivers down the spine of Colorado’s next opponent. The team had five different players score for the second game in a row, and the MacKinnon-Landeskog-Rantanen line accounted for an incredible 24 points (nine goals/15 assists) in the four-game sweep.

“Definitely proud, and it is not easy to do. I mean, St. Louis — believe me, they are a really good team,” Landeskog said. “I think you look at the whole series and you break down each game, I think the score hasn’t really been indicative of the way the series has been. It’s been really tight, it’s been hard checking and it hasn’t been easy. So, come in here in a tough building to play in and take two in a row against a desperate team, it is not easy to do.”

After becoming the first team since the 1994 Rangers to win each of their first four games by three or more goals, the Avalanche only made it look that way.

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NEXT UP: Game 1, Avalanche vs. Golden Knights/Wild | Date TBD

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NOTES

• The Avalanche dominated their first-round series, outscoring the Blues 20-7 while trailing for only 7:12 over the four-game sweep.

• Nathan MacKinnon’s goal and assist in Game 4 gave him nine points (six goals/three assists) in only four games, making the first Avalanche player to score that many points in as few games. MacKinnon’s six goals leads the league by far; no one else in the postseason has more than three.

• The Avalanche scored six empty-net goals in the series; at least one in each of their four wins.

• Mikko Rantanen had a goal and an assist on Sunday, giving him points in the last 14 playoff games he’s been in since the Avs’ 2020 postseason run. His seven points after four games this season sees him tied for fifth-place in the NHL.

• The Avalanche power play was devastating in the series, going 6-for-12 (50 percent) in the four-game sweep.

• Gabriel Landeskog was asked if Blues forward Ryan O’Reilly’s comments prior to the series — “we’re going to have fun, and we’re going to beat them” — provided the Avalanche win any extra incentive to send the St. Louis packing. “Yeah, it did,” Landeskog said. “It was a hard-fought series.” Landeskog, like his linemates Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen, had a goal and an assist in Sunday’s series-clinching Game 4. His eight points in the playoff sees him tied for third in the NHL.

• Ryan Graves is up too his old tricks; the Avalanche defenseman, who led the league in plus-minus in the 2019-2020 regular season, leads the playoffs with a plus-nine after only four games.

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THE FINAL WORD

“We found a way to play kind of that grinding hockey. Everybody knows we have the speed and the skill, but in the playoffs sometimes you have to grind wins too, and I think that’s what we did the last two games.” — Mikko Rantanen

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LAST NIGHT’S LINES

FORWARDS
Top Line: LW Gabriel Landeskog, C Nathan MacKinnon, RW Mikko Rantanen
Second Line: LW Andre Burakovsky, C J.T. Compher, RW Joonas Donskoi
Third Line: LW Brandon Saad, C Tyson Jost, LW Valeri Nichushkin
Fourth Line: LW Carl Soderberg, C Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, RW Alex Newhook

DEFENSEMEN
Top Pair: LD Devon Toews, RD Cale Makar
Second Pair: LD Samuel Girard, RD Ryan Graves
Third Pair: LD Patrik Nemeth, RD Conor Timmins

GOALTENDER
Starter: Philipp Grubauer

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INJURY WATCH

• Bowen Byram (upper-body injury) has been out since March 24, but is “an option whenever we want to use him,” according to head coach Jared Bednar on May 19.
• Logan O’Connor (lower-body injury) was placed on injured reserve on Apr. 2. He has surgery, and is expected to miss the rest of the season.
• Matt Calvert (upper-body injury) missed the Mar. 31 game and was placed on the injured reserve list on Apr. 11.
• Dennis Gilbert (facial injury, COVID-19 protocol) was placed on injured reserve on Feb. 20. He is expected to be out until at least late March.
• Erik Johnson (upper-body injury) left the Jan. 30 game and has no projected return date. On March 25, coach Jared Bednar suggested that it was possible that Johnson could miss the remainder of the season.
• Pavel Francouz (hip) has yet to play this season and remains on injured reserve. On Apr. 12, the Avalanche ruled him out for the rest of the season following hip surgery.

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Shawn Drotar is the host of “The Fan Late Night with Shawn Drotar;” weeknights from 10:00 p.m. to midnight — only on 104.3 The Fan. Follow him on Twitter at @sdrotar.

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