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Colorado Avalanche Report Card: Playing the Blues

By Nadia Archuleta

DENVER, CO - APRIL 07: Nathan MacKinnon #29 of the Colorado Avalanche jumps onto teammate Gabriel Landeskog #92 after he scored a goal against the St. Louis Blues at the Pepsi Center on April, 7, 2018 in Denver, Colorado. The Avalanche defeated the Blues 5-2. (Photo by Michael Martin/NHLI via Getty Images)
DENVER, CO - APRIL 07: Nathan MacKinnon #29 of the Colorado Avalanche jumps onto teammate Gabriel Landeskog #92 after he scored a goal against the St. Louis Blues at the Pepsi Center on April, 7, 2018 in Denver, Colorado. The Avalanche defeated the Blues 5-2. (Photo by Michael Martin/NHLI via Getty Images) /
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The St. Louis Blues had a slight edge on the season series with the Colorado Avalanche, but the Avs won the game that mattered the most.

The Colorado Avalanche faced their Centreal Division rival St. Louis Blues five times. Unfortunately, the Blues held a slight edge over the Avs, who went 3-2 against them. The scoring wasn’t too lopsided, though — 16-14 favoring the Blues.

This series was a little more even-handed than some others schedule-wise. Colorado started off hosting the Blues early on. And, while they didn’t face them again until January, the two teams played each other each month for the remainder of the regular season.

More from Mile High Sticking

2017-18 Results:

  • Oct. 19, 2017, at Colorado: St. Louis 4, Colorado 3
  • Jan. 25, 2018, at St. Louis: St. Louis 3, Colorado 1
  • Feb. 8, 2018, at St. Louis: St. Louis 6, Colorado 1
  • Mar. 15, 2018, at St. Louis: Colorado 4, St. Louis 1
  • Apr. 7, 2018, at Colorado: Colorado 5, St. Louis 2*

*Playoff clinching game

The Blues handed the Avalanche their first home loss, the third game Colorado played at Pepsi Center. However, as you can see, the Colorado Avalanche won the most important game against the Blues — the one that sent the Avs and not the Blues to the playoffs.

More Colorado Avalanche Team Grades:

Heroes for the Colorado Avalanche: Gabriel Landeskog (1 goal, 5 assists) Nathan MacKinnon (3 goals, 2 assists), Mikko Rantanen (2 goals, 4 assists)

Heroes for the St. Louis Blues: Brayden Schenn (4 goals, 1 assist), Paul Stastny (2 goals, 2 assists)

The top line was big for the Colorado Avalanche in this series. While the team also saw tallies from Alexander Kerfoot (3), Gabriel Bourque (1), and Samuel Girard (1), it was the top line that combined for six of their 14 goals.

Nathan MacKinnon’s final goal of the regular season was also the most important goal of the season. When he scored late in the second period to up the Avs up 3-1, that was the game-winning goal of Game 82 — the playoff clinching goal:

While even the ugliest of off-the-crotch goals (ahem, Rantanen) would be the most beautiful goal of the season because it was the playoff-clincher, that actually was classic MacKinnon — beauty of a snipe.

Though it wasn’t the game-winner, captain Gabriel Landeskog’s goals was the most celebrated of that playoff-clinching game:

The goal came late in the third period. An empty-netter, it put the Avs up 4-1 — making it pretty clear which team was headed to the playoffs. We all love the post-goal celly.

Next: Girard's Ankle Breaker on Schenn

The Avalanche did opposite with the Blues as with the Jets. Colorado started out weak against St. Louis, losing the first three in their series. However, they won the all-important Game 82 that sent the Avs and not the Blues to the playoffs.

Colorado Avalanche vs St. Louis Blues Team Grade: B+

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