"It was awesome, you even look back to the last St. Louis game before the little pause there, that was another gutsy effort by our team, and we pulled it together and we did the same thing tonight," said Tyson Jost. "That is what we're going to need in playoffs too. You know the games are going to get tight, and St. Louis is going to have a push, other teams are going to have pushes and we need to respond like we did. We are getting contributions throughout all four lines too and our D are playing great, and Dubby was outstanding tonight too. It's fun to play like that too when you are snapping it around and having fun and everyone is buying in."
Colorado became the second team in the NHL to add an 'x' next to its name in the standings with its fifth win in a row and fourth straight victory against the Blues this season. The Vegas Golden Knights were the first to clinch on Wednesday night.
The Avs have 66 points with a 31-9-4 record so far this year, their best through 44 games in franchise history. The previous mark was 64 points with a 28-8-7-1 record set by the 2000-01 Stanley Cup championship team.
"Real good game for us for being the first one back and happy to get that result. It was a pretty hard-fought, close hockey game," said head coach Jared Bednar. "Chances I am sure were pretty even 5-on-5 and both power plays got one, so good all-around effort. I liked the way [Devan] Dubnyk played in goal again tonight and gets us a big win, so I'm pretty happy with it."
Though the 2020-21 season is anything but ordinary, the Avalanche has rolled with the punches throughout the year. The team is growing through the adversity that it is facing by showing up to compete every night despite the challenges sent its way.
"I think it shows a lot of team character. I think we we're battling in both of these games," Burakovsky said of the past two contests against the Blues. "I think St. Louis was playing really good again tonight as well, I think they did in the last one too. It's a tough team to play against, they make it hard for us, but I think these two games we simplified our game, we're not making a lot of mistakes. We chip it in when we need to and then we try to outwork them down low. I think we've been successful that way.
"You can't have any excuses in this league, even if you feel a little bad, sick a little bit and been off for a couple days, every time you put those skates on you got to go out there and compete, I mean you got to do a job no matter what. I think it shows a lot of character in this team, and I think it was a really good win for us."