Avalanche defeat Blues, move into first wild card in West

ST. LOUIS -- The Colorado Avalanche moved into the first wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference with a 4-1 win against the St. Louis Blues at Scottrade Center on Thursday.
Mikko Rantanen had two goals and two assists, Nathan MacKinnon had three points, and Semyon Varlamov made 44 saves for the Avalanche (38-24-8), who extended their point streak to nine games (6-0-3). Colorado leads the Dallas Stars by one point for the first wild card and trails the Minnesota Wild by one point for third place in the Central Division.

"Right now, every point matters, every point counts," Varlamov said. "Every game is like a playoff game for us. This feels great to be a part of this."
Colorado's win was its first in five games against St. Louis and first in regulation against the Blues in 13 games.
WATCH: [All Avalanche vs. Blues highlights]
"It was a huge win," Rantanen said. "We know we haven't done that good this year and last year against these guys, so we wanted to kind of have a good start and that's what we did. We got the first two goals, and Varlamov played unreal in the net and that was the key."
Joel Edmundson scored, and Jake Allen made 19 saves for the Blues (37-28-5), who are 3-8-2 in their past 13 games. St. Louis is four points behind Dallas for the second wild card in the West.

The Blues had an 82-42 advantage in shot attempts but missed the net 22 times, including Vladimir Tarasenko with an open net 3:22 into the third period.
"Before we were talking how we couldn't score, I don't think we were generating a whole lot of chances," Blues center Brayden Schenn said. "Tonight, I don't know how many we had. We did whatever we could; we threw them at the net, we got second chances, third chances, hit posts, just one of those nights it wasn't able to go in.
"When [Tarasenko] gets that chance and he misses, he doesn't miss. Give him that chance 99 times out of 100 he'll make it. Obviously, that's the one time he missed. It's tough."
MacKinnon scored at 10:11 of the first period to give the Avalanche a 1-0 lead before extending it to 2-0 at 13:03. He has 20 points (10 goals, 10 assists) during a 10-game point streak.
"He's playing great, one of the best players in the League right now," Rantanen said. "Speed is his thing. It's fun to watch."
Edmundson, playing his first game since Feb. 8 because of a broken right forearm, made it 2-1 at 9:15 of the second period.

"That was our game plan, fire as many shots as we can," Edmundson said. "I think we got 45 shots and probably missed the net 10-15 times. We were shooting everything and just ran into a hot goalie."
Rantanen scored on a backhand off a stretch pass from Gabriel Landeskog to give the Avalanche a 3-1 lead at 16:29 and made it 4-1 with an empty-net goal with 41.2 seconds remaining.

Goal of the game

MacKinnon's goal at 10:11 of the first period.

Save of the game

Varlamov's save on Schenn at 3:05 of the first period.

Highlight of the game

Rantanen's goal at 16:29 of the second period.

They said it

"Our guys played with great commitment, urgency and intensity. You play like that, good things will happen to you. That's a playoff type game, as close as you can get to the playoffs without getting there." -- Avalanche coach Jared Bednar
"I would say looking at this game that we continued where we were, playing some good hockey, generating chances, controlling the play. If we continue to do that and find a way to get a little better in a few areas, then we'll get a lot of wins." -- Blues coach Mike Yeo
"Those things happen. It doesn't matter if you're Wayne Gretzky or Vladimir Tarasenko, there's going to be times when either pucks rolls on you or slides off the end of your stick and it's a wide open net. It's happened to everyone." -- Blues goalie Jake Allen on right wing Vladimir Tarasenko's miss in the third period

Need to know

Avalanche defenseman Tyson Barrie had an assist, and is the sixth defenseman in Avalanche/Quebec Nordiques history with at least one point in eight consecutive games. Barrie has 11 points (four goals, seven assists) during the streak. ... Landeskog had three assists.

What's next

Avalanche: Host the Nashville Predators on Friday (9 p.m. ET; ALT, FS-TN, NHL.TV)
Blues: Host the New York Rangers on Saturday (8 p.m. ET; FS-MW, MSG, NHL.TV)