DENVER -- The St. Louis Blues will take a three-game winning streak into their game Friday against the Colorado Avalanche at Pepsi Center with a chance to move within three points of the Central Division-leading Chicago Blackhawks (9 p.m. ET; FS-MW, ALT).
The Blues (28-15-7) have won five of their past six games following a stretch in which they lost three consecutive games in overtime or a shootout. That included a 4-3 overtime loss to the Avalanche (24-21-3) on Jan. 6 when they squandered a late lead.
Colorado's Nathan MacKinnon scored with 1:29 left in regulation to tie the game in a 6-on-5 skating situation and Gabriel Landeskog won it with 16.5 seconds remaining in the extra period.
"That still stings a bit, but we had a stretch there where that was kind of a script to the game, where we had a lead and would give it up and tried to scrounge an extra point in overtime or in a shootout," Blues center David Backes said. "We learned a lesson from those games. In the last 5-10 minutes of games lately we've buckled down and secured the win when we've had the lead."