The Colorado Avalanche are a win away from clinching the top seed in the Western Conference after a gritty 2-0 road victory at Dallas on Saturday.
They will try for that victory when they host the St. Louis Blues on Sunday night.
Colorado (50-15-10, 110 points) has an eight-point lead over the Stars, who can only earn 10 more points the rest of the way. The Avalanche, who took the season series from Dallas with Saturday’s win, have won 50 games for the fourth time in the last five years.
One of those 50 victories came against St. Louis (32-31-12, 76 points) in Colorado on Dec. 31. Nathan MacKinnon had two goals in the 6-1 win and leads the NHL with 51 after his empty-netter Saturday, and is third in the league with 122 points (71 assists).
Offensive-minded defenseman Cale Makar had an assist in the New Year’s Eve game but is sidelined with an upper-body injury suffered Monday night against Calgary, but the Avalanche have plenty of other weapons. Martin Necas has a career-high 94 points (36 goals, 58 assists) and Brock Nelson, with 33 goals, gives Colorado three players with 30 or more.
There are two others with 20 goals and Parker Kelly can make it three if he can get one in the final seven games. Kelly’s previous career high was eight goals but he surpassed that in mid-January. The bottom-six forward has seen time on the top two lines and credits MacKinnon for helping him improve offensively.
“He’s helped a lot with my offensive game, probably more than the outside public would see,” Kelly told The Denver Gazette. “It’s always good little pointers that I would have never thought of before with myself. Great leader, great teammate, and there’s a reason he’s the best in the world.”
The Blues have surged since the Olympic break to get into the chase for the wild card. Their 6-2 win at Anaheim on Friday night improved their record to 12-3-3 since Feb. 4, and they are 6-2-2 in their last 10.
The victory over the Ducks ended a two-game skid and came with another strong game from leading scorer Rob Thomas. Thomas had a goal and two assists and now has 53 points (18 goals, 35 assists) in just 57 games this season.
His two assists Friday night set up Dylan Holloway for power-play goals, including the last one to ice the game.
“He’s the most underrated passer in the league,” Holloway said of Thomas. “Such a nice pass and I was kind of blessed to have that lay right on my tape like that.”
St. Louis has moved into contention despite being a seller at the trade deadline. The Blues dealt Brayden Schenn and Justin Faulk last month in the midst of a four-game winning streak. Holloway, who leads St. Louis with 19 goals, has scored seven of those since the trade deadline.
He is fourth on the Blues with 40 points behind Pavel Buchnevich’s 44 points (17 goals, 27 assists) and Jordan Kyrou’s 41 points (17 goals, 24 assists).
