The Colorado Avalanche secured the top seed in the Western Conference, so the only goal left for them in the regular season is capturing the President’s Trophy and home ice throughout the Stanley Cup playoffs.
They can accomplish that with two more points in their final five games. The first chance comes Thursday night when Colorado hosts the Calgary Flames.
Colorado (51-16-10, 112 points) beat the St. Louis Blues 3-1 on Tuesday night to clinch the Central Division and the Western Conference. The Avalanche have been alone atop the NHL standings since Dec. 1, and their only competition for the overall top seed is Carolina, which has 106 points with four games left.
Colorado went 1-0-1 against Carolina this season.
“We set our goals at the start of the year, and we wanted to be on top,” captain Gabe Landeskog said after the win in St. Louis. “That’s a big step. We know it doesn’t mean anything come playoff time, other than we get an extra game at home every series.”
The win over the Blues was costly. Nazem Kadri suffered a finger injury when he blocked a shot on his final shift of the second period. Head coach Jared Bednar said Wednesday morning on Altitude Radio that Kadri will miss some time but didn’t specify how long.
Kadri, who still leads Calgary in scoring after being traded from the Flames on March 6, has 50 points this season (16 goals, 34 assists). He has four goals and five assists in 16 games with the Avalanche.
Colorado has already been without defenseman Cale Makar, who suffered an upper-body injury against Calgary on March 30, but he is expected back before the end of the regular season.
Kadri had surgery on his thumb during the second round of the 2022 playoffs but returned to play the last three games of the Stanley Cup Finals.
Calgary (32-36-9, 73 points) was eliminated from the playoffs when Nashville won Monday night. The Flames didn’t show any letdown when they traveled to Dallas on Tuesday night and nearly beat the Stars before falling 4-3 in overtime.
Calgary led 3-1 early in the third period before the Stars rallied to win it in overtime.
“I liked our game,” Flames coach Ryan Huska said. “There was a lot of our game where I thought we played hard. We did a good job away from the pucks, thought we had some lengthy shifts in the offensive zone. … At the end of the night, again, you’re taking penalties against a very good power play. That’s tough.”
Like the Avalanche, Calgary had a player suffer an injury Tuesday night. Defenseman Kevin Bahl played just two shifts before leaving with a lower-body injury. There was no update on his condition.
Thursday night is the second of three matchups in a span of nine games. The teams didn’t play this season until March 30, and they finish up their regular-season series Tuesday in Calgary.
