In the penultimate game of the Avalanche’s regular season Thursday night, an overtime or shootout loss would suffice as one point would clinch a playoff berth for the second consecutive season.
But the Avs are wired to defeat the struggling in regulation at the .
Colorado will also clinch a playoff spot if Arizona loses at Las Vegas late Thursday.
“We need this badly,” Avalanche star center said Thursday after a morning skate. “We can’t rely on anyone to beat Arizona. We need to win this ourselves. I’m excited. I’m not looking past this one. Nobody is.”
The Avs take a nine-game points streak (7-0-2) into Thursday’s game.
Veteran defenseman , the two-time Stanley Cup champion for Pittsburgh, said finishing the regular season 2-0 is important. Even if the Avs defeat Winnipeg and can’t move up from the No. 8 Western Conference playoff seed, Cole won’t consider Saturday’s regular-season finale at San Jose a meaningless game.
The Avs can only climb to the No. 7 seed if they finish 2-0 and the go 0-2.
“I don’t think anyone is willing to say, ‘Well, we only need one point, so let’s just play well enough to get one point, and we can wait to see what happens with Arizona,’ ” Cole said. “We have our destiny in our hands and we need to take advantage of it. We need to grab it. Everyone wants to get a win tonight, and get a win Saturday in San Jose to make sure we’re playing at our peak game going into the playoffs.”
The No. 8 seed would open the playoffs at No. 1 Calgary, with Game 1 Wednesday or Thursday next week.
Footnotes. Colorado all-star right winger will miss his seventh consecutive game due to an injury to his midsection but the team’s second-leading scorer skated on his own Thursday morning. So there is hope he could be ready for the playoffs. … The Avs are going back to goalie , who had started eight consecutive games before backing up in Tuesday’s 6-2 over Edmonton. Grubauer is 6-0-2 in his last eight starts. … The Jets sit atop the Central Division standings with 96 points — winning the tiebreaker with the — but could fall to third if they continue to struggle. Winnipeg is 1-4 in its last five games and 2-5 in its previous seven. The Jets had a players-only meeting after Tuesday’s 5-1 loss at Minnesota.
