West's Top Seed Up For Grabs in Matchup with Vegas

The Colorado Avalanche has had a goal of being the top team in the Western Conference for the playoffs since before the 2019-20 season began, and it won't be long before it is determined if that becomes reality.

The Avs can acquire the West's first seed for the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs in their matchup with the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday. Both squads are undefeated so far in round-robin play.

"I think No. 1, it is a goal that we had set for ourselves early in the year and it is something we talked about later on in the year, and I think that that goal kind of helped drive our consistency throughout the year," head coach Jared Bednar said of his team's ambition. "To have one game remaining and that still be a milestone that we can reach, I think it's good. It's good to have our team succeed when we set goals whether they're short-term or long-term goals. Whether its symbolic, I do think there's advantages for sure still to have the home ice and last change and being able to pursue some matchups if we want to, I see some significance there.

"For me, it's more just having our team work towards something and make sure that we are playing our best to try to achieve the goals that we set out. That is the last one for the regular season, so hopefully it's something that we can attain and play a real good game against Vegas tomorrow."

Before the season was paused on March 12 and eventually concluded, Colorado established steady results through its 70 games. In the first 20 outings of the year, the Avs went 12-6-2 and followed that with a 11-7-2 mark through the next 20 contests. From Game No. 41-60, Colorado posted a 12-5-3 record. The Avalanche was 7-2-1 in the final 10 matchups of the campaign and has gone 2-0-0 through the first two outings of round-robin play.

The pool format that Colorado and Vegas are in also includes the St. Louis Blues and Dallas Stars, with each team playing one another to determine the conference's top four seeds. Dallas and St. Louis face off on Sunday to determine the West's third and fourth seeds for the playoffs.

Colorado began tournament play with a 2-1 win over St. Louis on Sunday as Nazem Kadri scored with a tenth of a second remaining in regulation and goaltender Philipp Grubauer made 31 saves. The Avs improved to 2-0-0 on Wednesday when Pavel Francouz stopped all 27 shots that he faced to pick up a 4-0 shutout victory. Bednar did not say on Friday who will be in net for the game against the Golden Knights.

Vegas scored four third-period goal's to defeat the Stars 5-3 on Monday in its first Stanley Cup Qualifier game and picked up a 6-4 victory on Thursday versus St. Louis.

"It's a really good team, deep team. They have been scoring a lot of goals," Bednar noted of the Knights. "They play hard, they play fast, they're skilled, well coached. It's a tough opponent for sure. They are in this round robin for a reason and I feel like their play has been getting better and better and they certainly looked good the last couple games of the round robin, for sure."

The Avalanche won both meetings against the Golden Knights during the regular season, with both outings taking place in Vegas, winning by a combined 13-4 margin. Colorado forward Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, who is a former member of the Knights, led the way in each victory, as he had a career-high three points (one goal, two assists) in Colorado's 6-1 win on Oct. 25 and followed that up with his first career multi-goal game in a 7-3 victory on Dec. 23.

Colorado practiced for about 45 minutes at Terwillegar Arena on Friday to prepare for its upcoming contest, knowing that Saturday's game will set the West's top two seeds for the playoffs. Although the home-ice advantage in the 2020 postseason will be different than it has been in previous years, it could still benefit the Avalanche.

"It's huge, obviously we had a goal from the start of the season was to be able to have home-ice advantage," Bellemare said of the opportunity. "I know we are in the bubble, but it's still important to get it, it is going to be important down the stretch. Tomorrow is the teams that won the first two games, they are going to meet each other. It should be intense and it's the last game before the start of the series, so it's a great opportunity."