Colorado’s regular-season conquest of the Western Conference will have to wait.
The Avalanche had a chance to clinch the Central Division and the top seed in the Western Conference on Sunday, but the St. Louis Blues ruined the moment with a 3-2 victory at Ball Arena. St. Louis’ top line dominated, and Robert Thomas posted his first career hat trick, including the game-winner with just under three minutes left to bury Colorado.
The Avs, playing without Valeri Nichushkin on Sunday due to an upper-body injury and also still without Cale Makar due to an upper-body injury, couldn’t muster enough finishing touch on offense. Then the defense wilted at a critical moment, sealing the defeat.
“We gave up too many odd-man rushes,” Avs head coach Jared Bednar said. “(The first goal) was because we’re disorganized coming into our zone, because they had numbers beating us up the ice. Odd-man rush on the second one, odd-man rush on the third one, and that can’t happen.”
Bednar said there’s a possibility Nichushkin is back on the ice for Colorado’s next game on Tuesday in St. Louis.
“I don’t want to be playing guys hurt if it can get worse,” Bednar said. “That’s what we did today with Val.”
On Sunday, in front of a sold-out Easter crowd, both teams squandered a couple of opportunities early, including Nathan MacKinnon missing a one-on-one and then the Blues also whiffing on a similar chance. Neither mustered a shot on net in those scenarios.\
“I just couldn’t finish (all game),” MacKinnon said. “It was one of those nights. Felt good, legs felt good, just couldn’t find the spots.”
About 10 minutes through the frame, the Avs briefly took the lead when Ross Colton batted a rebound out of the air and into the net off a deflection from the weak side. But upon video review on a St. Louis challenge, Colorado was offside, negating the goal.
A few minutes later, St. Louis took control off a chaotic sequence in front of the Colorado net. MacKenzie Blackwood made three saves at close range, but the Avs couldn’t clear the puck, and Thomas made them pay with a slap shot from the slot. That beat Blackwood on the top right shelf.
But the Avs responded, with Brent Burns — who was honored before the game for his 1,000-game streak that hit the milestone on Saturday in the road win over Dallas — forcing the action. Burns’ wrister through traffic deflected off Parker Kelly, then off a Blues defender and goalie Joel Hofer to equalize the game at 1-1.
In the second period, both teams scored within 29 seconds of each other to push the score to 2-2.
Burns’ wrister from up near the blue line found its way through traffic and into the bottom right corner of the net for Colorado’s first lead. Before PA announcer Alan Roach was even done celebrating the goal, however, St. Louis scored. Off an Avs’ chance, the Blues reversed the ice in a 3-on-2 rush that led to a tic-tac-toe pass and Thomas’ second goal of the night.
Five minutes into the third, the Avs nearly had a short-handed goal when Hofer got drawn out of the crease, but Colorado couldn’t punch it in amid a mass of bodies in front of the net.
And it was St. Louis that had the final say in a 2-on-1 rush, when Thomas got the feed from Jimmy Snuggerud on the weak side of the net and easily put the game-winner home. Snuggerud pulled off a toe-drag to shake Martin Nečas and zip the puck to a wide-open Thomas.
“I don’t know why Marty’s playing D (there),” MacKinnon said. “Tough way to lose.
“It’s a lot of winning and losing, back-and-forth lately. It was a tight game, but it would’ve been nice to just get a point there and take our chances in OT.”
The Avs have just one win in their last seven games in Denver, lacking the home cooking they had going earlier in the season, when they put together a 17-game home winning streak.
“We’re chasing the game a bit (at home),” Kelly said. “We want to make sure this is a tough building to play in and right now, it’s just kind of frustrating (with the recent results at home).”
Will it be easier to flush Sunday’s loss, considering the back-to-back games against the Blues, who remain in contention for a wild-card spot, and the imminent clinching of the No. 1 Western Conference spot?
“It makes it easier if we beat them on Tuesday,” Bednar said.
