The path to the Stanley Cup runs through Denver.
The Avs beat the Flames 3-1 on Thursday at Ball Arena, securing the Presidents’ Trophy and home-ice advantage throughout the playoffs. MacKenzie Blackwood stopped 29 shots before finally yielding a goal late, while Gabe Landeskog, Martin Necas and Nathan MacKinnon all lit the lamp in a game that was not as close as the score indicated.
This is the fourth time that Colorado has claimed the honor for the most points in the NHL’s regular season, joining the 1997, 2001 and 2021 teams. Only one of those teams, the ’01 squad, ended up winning the Stanley Cup.
Of the 37 previous teams to win the Presidents’ Trophy since its inception in 1986, eight have gone on to win the Stanley Cup, with the most recent being the 2013 Blackhawks. So the work for the championship-or-bust Avs — who clinched the Central Division title and the top spot in the Western Conference with a win in St. Louis on Tuesday — is far from over.
“It’s not the trophy we’re looking for,” an even-keeled Necas said from a Colorado locker room short on any sort of celebration, “but it’s a good start.”
On Thursday, it wasn’t near the shellacking that Colorado put on Calgary in the teams’ last meeting two weeks ago, when the Avs scored five times in the opening period to cruise to a 9-2 win. But once again, the Avs were in command for most of the night.
Colorado dominated the possession and chances early, recording the game’s first eight shots on goal. The Avs finally broke through in the waning minutes of the period, taking advantage of a power play with a goal by Landeskog with just over a minute left.
On Wednesday, Landeskog was nominated by the Colorado chapter of the PHWA which is presented annually to the player who “best exemplifies perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey.” Fresh off that honor, Landeskog took a tic-tac-toe pass from Necas and MacKinnon, with the latter finding Landeskog wide open on the weak side of the net for an easy-money 1-0 lead.
Landeskog echoed Necas’ sentiment, noting that winning the Presidents’ Trophy can only mean so much for a group that has had tunnel vision on raising the Stanley Cup. The Avs’ captain added that he believes this year’s team is “more experienced than that (2021 Presidents’ Cup team), and hungrier than that one.
“It obviously means we’ve had a great regular season and we’re the top team after 82 games, but at the end of the day going into the playoffs, it doesn’t really mean much,” Landeskog said. “Everybody is going to start fresh, 0-0, and you get a chance to prove yourself again.
“It fuels us knowing that we’ve won a lot of hockey games in a lot of different ways, because I think that’s important to remember.”
In the second, Colorado added to its lead with a slick goal by Necas. Off assists from MacKinnon and Brent Burns with about five minutes left in the period, Necas skated his way through the heart of the Calgary defense, splitting a pair of Flames defenders before beating a sprawling Dustin Wolf on the top right shelf.
The play left Wolf facedown on the ice in disbelief for a few moments and gave Colorado a 2-0 lead.
With his assist to Necas, MacKinnon moved into third all-time on the franchise’s single-season point list, passing Peter Stastny’s 124. MacKinnon holds the team’s all-time record, with 140 points in 2023-24, and the Hall of Famer Stastny is second with 139 with Quebec in 1981-82.
“(MacKinnon) has been dominant for us from the very first game, and I expect that to continue (in the playoffs),” Landeskog said.
In the third, the Avs defense cinched down and allowed Calgary very few legitimate chances to get on the board. The Flames finally scored with just under three minutes to go, as Tyson Gross found the net in a six-on-five scenario with Wolf pulled.
With Wolf still on the bench, Gross scored again with 1:29 left, but the goal was wiped off when the Flames were ruled offside after a challenge from the Avalanche. MacKinnon then scored his NHL-best 52nd goal of the season on an empty net with 54 seconds left, setting a new career high.
Colorado has four regular-season games remaining, including two at home against Vegas on Saturday and Seattle on April 16. Avs head coach Jared Bednar said he and his staff will formulate a plan to get Colorado rested and ready for the start of the playoffs.
Bednar says he’d like to see Cale Makar, who has been sidelined for a couple weeks with an upper-body injury, return to action before the playoffs. Meanwhile Nazem Kadri, who is dealing with a finger injury, is “a day-to-day process.”
As for MacKinnon, Bednar says the Avs’ catalyst will be in the lineup if MacKinnon wants to play, and the same thing for Necas.
“We’ve got some guys that have been out of the lineup that I think we need to continue to play, regardless of their stature on our team and how many minutes they’ve played,” Bednar said. “We’ve got some guys that probably could use a break. We’ve got some guys chasing milestones (and awards).
“(In the next couple days), we’ll try to come up with a plan for the last four games, and the last three games for sure, on who we want to rest, how we’re going to do that, and who we can call up (from the AHL’s Colorado Eagles).”
