Avalanche Sets Sights on Next Goal After Taking Second Seed

The Colorado Avalanche's regular-season goal of finishing as the top seed for playoffs came up just a bit short, but the club is still in a good spot to achieve its larger objective of bringing the Stanley Cup back to Denver.

The Avalanche rallied late in the third period on Saturday afternoon as J.T. Compher scored on a rebound with 62 second remaining to force overtime against the Vegas Golden Knights, but Alex Tuch tallied with 15.9 seconds left in the extra frame to give the Knights the 4-3 win and the No. 1 spot for the Western Conference playoffs.

Both teams entered the contest at Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta, with matching 2-0-0 records in round-robin play and were guaranteed to have one of the top two seeds. Which position each club would own was the only thing that needed to be decided.

In an outing that saw the squads trade goals throughout and needed nearly all five minutes of overtime to decide a winner, Vegas was the club that was able to squeeze out the extra point in the standings.

"They're a fast team, they stay above pucks, but we didn't execute to the best of our ability," said Nathan MacKinnon following the OT loss. "We feel like we have another gear. Nothing to take away from them, but we feel like we could have buried more of our chances and put the game away."

The Avalanche will now face the No. 11-seed Arizona Coyotes in the teams' second all-time playoff series, while the Knights take on the No. 12 Chicago Blackhawks. Both Chicago and Arizona staged upsets on higher-seeded opponents during their best-of-five qualifying round

Colorado defeated the then-Phoenix Coyotes in five games (4-1) in the franchises' last postseason meeting in the 2000 conference quarterfinals.

"They're a very good team, well structured, got some good offense," MacKinnon said of the upcoming matchup with the desert dogs. "Yeah, it's going to be a tough series, and we'll do our homework tomorrow and Monday. I don't know when we're going to play, but we'll be well prepared and ready to go for Game 1."

When looking back at the team's final contest of the Stanley Cup Qualifiers, Avs head coach Jared Bednar's initial thoughts were that his squad didn't play its best game of the postseason. The Golden Knights were the more consistent team and took more advantage of mistakes than the Avalanche, which held a 35-26 edge in shots on goal.

"They play, to be honest with you, a similar style as we play," Bednar said. "We want to be a team that's pressuring the puck all over the ice and winning our numbers battle at the puck. They did a nice job of if, they've been doing a nice job of it, and they certain did it again tonight and earned that victory. No question about it."

Still, Bednar saw a lot of good things in Colorado's game against Vegas, just like in the other tune-up games when it had to battle some in-game adversity and stage comebacks.

The Avs finished round-robin play with a 2-0-1 mark after defeating two division rivals, the defending Stanley Cup champion St. Louis Blues 2-1 and the Dallas Stars in a 4-0 shutout.

"We found ways to win, we came from behind a couple times, we have good fight, there's a lot of positives," Bednar said. "We're going to keep working on our game all the way throughout the playoffs, and every game and every opponent and every scenario is going to provide a different scenario and we're going to have to rise to the occasion."

The Avalanche's goal of earning the top seed in the conference dated back to last season's playoffs, where the team lost by one goal in Game 7 of the second round to the San Jose Sharks. That contest was played in Northern California, and Bednar and his players said many times throughout the 2019-20 campaign that if that game had been staged at Pepsi Center, there could have been a different result.

Flash forward to March and the Avs were in a solid position of obtaining that top spot, trailing the Blues by only two points in the standings. Colorado had a game in hand and the two clubs were scheduled to face each other in the regular-season finale.

That outing never happened as the league paused play on March 12 due to concerns of the COVID-19 pandemic and eventually ended the regular season, with the Avalanche finishing second behind the Blues in points percentage. However due to the expanded 24-team playoff, Colorado's strong season allowed it to earn a bye to the first round and compete for the West's top seed along with the other three teams that finished with the best points percentage.

In the end, the Avalanche finished one point short but is still guaranteed "home-ice advantage" for at least the first two rounds, if the team is able to advance.

"The playoffs are tough, you need four really good lines and we have that, a good D good goalie, so we feel good," MacKinnon said. "Obviously, losing today sucks but we're the No. 2 seed in the West, we're not in a bad spot. We're feeling heading into the first round."

The next games the team plays will now have elimination consequences to them, as Colorado faces Arizona in a best-of-seven series. The Coyotes are a tight-checking team like Vegas and upset the No. 6 Nashville Predators in four games during the qualifier.

Bednar said his team will need to learn from its latest contest against a good Golden Knights team and be ready to match its new opponent when Round 1 begins.

"I'm not really that disappointed with our game," said Bednar. "I know we could have been better, would have been nice to win, we didn't. Now we're moving on and we're getting ready for an opponent come Tuesday or Wednesday."