Avs gain on Blues with 50th win
The official game recap St. Louis Blues vs Colorado Avalanche.The Colorado Avalanche aren't ready to concede the Central Division title to the St. Louis Blues.
But just in case the Avalanche do, in fact, play the Chicago Blackhawks in the First Round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, home ice would be a nice reward.
Three goals in the first 10:25 of the second period, scored by Paul Stastny, Nathan MacKinnon and Nick Holden, gave the Avalanche the lead, and Semyon Varlamov made 31 saves in a 4-0 victory against the Blues on Saturday afternoon.
The Avalanche (50-21-6) won their 50th game for the second time in franchise history (they won 52 in 2000-01). They are within five points (111-106) of the first-place Blues (52-18-7) with five games remaining.
Stastny and MacKinnon each had a goal and an assist for the Avalanche, who defeated the Blues for the first time in four games this season.
Stastny, who's had his way against the team in the city where he grew up, scored for the 11th time in 24 games against St. Louis (30 points) when he knocked in a rebound at the side of the goal past Ryan Miller 1:14 into the second period after Vladimir Sobotka received an extra minor at the end of the first period for cross-checking Gabriel Landeskog.
The Avalanche made it 2-0 off another rebound goal, when MacKinnon one-timed a shot from the left circle past Miller 6:20 into the second, following up Jamie McGinn's shot from the top of the right circle.
Holden completed the three-goal period when he crashed the net and knocked the puck into the net with his skate at 10:25. The play went to review, and although there was a distinct kicking motion, the goal counted because, as Rule 49.2 explains, "a kicked puck that deflects off the stick of any player (excluding the goalie's stick) shall be ruled a good goal."
Ryan O'Reilly scored a power-play goal off a Stastny feed at 15:55 of the third.
The Blues had 69 penalty minutes, 61 in the third period following multiple on-ice altercations.
-- by Louie Korac for NHL.com --
Eurolanche.com, Worldwide, eurolanche@eurolanche.com
05/04/2014 - 23:30
