Calgary Flames (32-36-9) @ Colorado Avalanche (51-16-10)\u00a0<\/p>\n
7 p.m. MT | Ball Arena | Watch: KUSA-9, KTVD-20, Altitude, Altitude+ | Listen: Altitude Sports Radio (92.5 FM)\u00a0<\/p>\n
After clinching the Central Division and the Western Conference\u2019s top seed on Tuesday,\u00a0the Avalanche begins a two-game homestand against the Calgary Flames on Thursday. This is the second of three regular-season meetings between the teams, as the Avs defeated the Flames 9-2 on March 30th\u00a0in Denver, and\u00a0they\u2019ll\u00a0play in Calgary\u00a0on\u00a0April 14th.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Latest Result (COL):\u00a0COL 3, STL 1\u00a0<\/p>\n
Latest Result (CGY):\u00a0CGY 3, DAL 4 (OT)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Success in St. Louis\u00a0<\/p>\n
Valeri Nichushkin scored twice and Martin Necas added a tally to help the Avs clinch the Central Division and the Western Conference\u2019s top seed as it defeated the St. Louis Blues 3-1 at Enterprise Center on Tuesday. In net for the Avs, Scott Wedgewood stopped 18 of the 19 shots he faced. Nichushkin opened the scoring at\u00a016:11\u00a0of the first period\u00a0with his 16th\u00a0goal of the season via a net-front deflection\u00a0on Devon Toews\u2019 shot from the point.\u00a0Necas doubled Colorado\u2019s lead at 19:32 of the first period with his 37th\u00a0goal of the season via a shot from the right doorstep set up by Nathan MacKinnon\u2019s feed. The Avs took a 3-0 lead\u00a0at 1:40 of the second period when Nichushkin scored a shorthanded goal with his 17th\u00a0tally of the season via a between-the-legs\u00a0shot from the right doorstep on a partial breakaway set up by Brock Nelson\u2019s feed. Robert Thomas put the Blues on the board at\u00a015:38 of the second period via a shot from the right doorstep off the rush.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Leading the Way\u00a0
\nNate the Great\u00a0<\/p>\n
MacKinnon leads the NHL in goals (51) while ranking third in points (123) and assists (72).\u00a0<\/p>\n
Wedgewall\u00a0<\/p>\n
Among goaltenders with at least 24 games played, Wedgewood leads the NHL in save percentage (.918) and goals-against average (2.10).\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Marty Party\u00a0<\/p>\n
Necas is ninth in the NHL in points (95).\u00a0<\/p>\n
Series History\u00a0<\/p>\n
In 135 previous regular-season games against the Flames, the Avalanche has a record of 67-54-8-6. The teams have met once in the playoffs, with the Avalanche defeating the Flames in five games in the 2019 Western Conference First Round.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Defeat in Dallas\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Flames lost 4-3 in overtime to the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center\u00a0on Tuesday. In the second period, Justin\u00a0Hryckowian\u00a0gave the Stars a 1-0 lead at 4:30 before Calgary made it\u00a02-1 after goals from\u00a0Joel Farabee at 12:38 and Yegor\u00a0Sharangovich\u00a0at 18:52.\u00a0The Flames took a 3-1 lead when Zayne Parekh scored a power-play goal\u00a0at\u00a026\u00a0second\u00a0of the third period. Dallas tied the game after third-period goals from Wyatt Johnston at 1:16 and Jason Robertson at 4:51. Johnston scored the\u00a0game-winning goal with a power-play tally at 3:39 of\u00a0overtime.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Contributing Offense Against Calgary\u00a0<\/p>\n
MacKinnon has posted 43 points (18g\/25a) in 31 regular-season games against the Flames, in addition to eight points (3g\/5a) in five playoff contests.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Gabriel Landeskog has recorded 23 points (8g\/15a) in 30 regular-season contests against Calgary, along with four points (1g\/3a) in five playoff games.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Necas has registered 10 points (5g\/5a) in 13 games against the Flames.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Flames\u2019 Scorers\u00a0<\/p>\n
Matt Coronato is tied for first on the Flames in points (41) while ranking second in assists (24) and fourth in goals (17).\u00a0<\/p>\n
Morgan Frost leads the Flames in goals (21) while ranking tied for first in points (41) and third in assists (20).\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mikael Backlund leads the Flames in assists (25) while ranking tied for first in points (41) and fifth in goals (16).\u00a0<\/p>\n
A Numbers Game\u00a0
\n92.3%\u00a0<\/p>\n
Colorado\u2019s\u00a092.3% mark on the penalty kill since March 11th\u00a0is the best in the NHL.\u00a0<\/p>\n
4\u00a0<\/p>\n
Toews\u2019\u00a0four assists in April lead the Avalanche.\u00a0<\/p>\n
73\u00a0<\/p>\n
Necas\u2019 73 even-strength points are the sixth most in the NHL this season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Quote That Left a Mark\u00a0<\/p>\n
“[Our] goals for us started with winning the division, the conference\u00a0[and we]\u00a0still need another win to get first overall [in the NHL],\u00a0and\u00a0we’d\u00a0be crazy not to chase that at this point.\u00a0It’s\u00a0important. If you get to where you want to\u00a0go\u00a0you,\u00a0might as well try and get your home ice, especially after a season like this. So, it feels great.\u00a0We’re\u00a0not throwing parades or that kind of stuff yet, but\u00a0we’re\u00a0happy with where\u00a0we’re\u00a0at. We should celebrate it a little bit, because\u00a0it’s\u00a0a big goal\u00a0of\u00a0ours\u00a0to start the year. And now\u00a0we’ve\u00a0accomplished\u00a0part of\u00a0it\u00a0and\u00a0we’ll\u00a0stay focused here. We have five games to go, and [we’ll] keep working on our and dialing in some\u00a0things\u00a0so we feel really good about our game going into the playoffs.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
— Avalanche Head Coach Jared Bednar on the Avalanche clinching the Central Division and the Western Conference\u2019s top seed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Calgary Flames (32-36-9) @ Colorado Avalanche (51-16-10)\u00a0 7 p.m. MT | Ball Arena | Watch: KUSA-9, KTVD-20, Altitude,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":548727,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5120],"tags":[71,5,4,534,84,5285,5284],"class_list":{"0":"post-548726","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-louis-blues","8":"tag-blues","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-st-louis","12":"tag-st-louis-blues","13":"tag-stlouis","14":"tag-stlouisblues"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116374796035936805","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=548726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548726\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/548727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}