Avalanche defeat Blackhawks, become 1st team to clinch playoff berth

CHICAGO -- The Colorado Avalanche became the first team to clinch a berth in the Stanley Cup Playoffs this season with a 4-1 victory against the Chicago Blackhawks at United Center on Friday.

Martin Necas had a goal and two assists, and Nathan MacKinnon had three assists for the Avalanche (45-13-10), who needed one point to clinch a berth and were 0-2-1 in their previous three games. Valeri Nichushkin had a goal and an assist, and Mackenzie Blackwood made 19 saves.

Colorado, which leads the Dallas Stars by four points for first place in the Central Division, also became the first team with 100 points, reaching the mark for a fifth straight season.

“It’s a good start, a good start,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “We’ll be happy about that. I mean, we like what we’re doing right now. Obviously there are ebbs and flows to the season, but to this point of the season we’ve put ourselves in a good spot here. We feel good about the way we’re playing. Making the playoffs is the first step to where you want to go, and we’re pretty happy about that, (getting) 100 points and still a lot of season left to play.”

Wyatt Kaiser scored, and Arvid Soderblom made 45 saves for the Blackhawks (26-31-12), who won 2-1 at the Minnesota Wild on Thursday. Chicago is eight points behind the Los Angeles Kings for the second wild card into the playoffs from the Western Conference.

“We didn’t have it tonight,” Blackhawks coach Jeff Blashill said. “I thought they (the Avalanche) came out and played really, really well. They snapped the puck around well. They were skating. We weren’t skating. Too many times we were just kind of standing still, with and without the puck. Then you’re in a grind.”

Necas gave the Avalanche a 1-0 lead at 13:19 of the first period. Nichushkin carried the puck into the slot after taking a drop pass from MacKinnon and backhanded a pass to Necas, who put the puck into the net off Soderblom’s left arm from the left face-off circle.

The three-point game gave Necas a career-high 84 points (32 goals, 52 assists). He had 83 last season, when he played for the Carolina Hurricanes and Colorado.

“Yeah, it feels good,” he said. “Let’s keep it rolling. I think if you just play like that, there aren’t many games we’re going to lose. Just a strong overall game. Both goalies (Blackwood and Scott Wedgewood) played the last couple of games great, and just keep it rolling.”

Brock Nelson made it 2-0 on the power play at 15:22. Cale Makar wound up from the high slot, hesitated and passed the puck toward the net before Nelson redirected it from in front.

The Avalanche outshot the Blackhawks 20-5 in the period.

Kaiser brought the Blackhawks to within 2-1 at 6:48 of the second period. The defenseman took a feed in the slot from Ryan Greene and put a forehand shot between the pads of Blackwood.

“I don’t know if he was going to find me,” Kaiser said. “I just knew they were changing and we were kind of changing. So I just tried to jump in the middle to at least give ‘Greener’ some option. It landed on my stick. What a pass.”

Nazem Kadri scored on the power play at 36 seconds of the third period for a 3-1 Colorado lead. MacKinnon took the puck in front of the net and made a no-look, backhand pass to Kadri, who scored from low in the right circle.

Nichushkin then made it 4-1 from between the circles at 8:34 after taking a pass from MacKinnon, who stripped Chicago defenseman Artyom Levshunov of the puck in the offensive zone.

“Obviously you work all year for this,” Makar said. “Now it’s a positioning game, and we want to feel good going into the playoffs, so we have to just keep winning down the stretch here.

“It felt like we kind of carried over how well we played last game (a 2-1 shootout loss to Dallas on Wednesday). I felt we were starting to do a lot of different things right. Fell back a little bit in the second period and then kind of found it again. It felt like overall a pretty solid game for us.”

NOTES: MacKinnon extended his point streak to five games (two goals, eight assists). He had his 18th three-point game of the season and tied Peter Stastny (1981-82) for the third most in a season in Avalanche/Quebec Nordiques history. Stastny (19 in 1982-83) and Joe Sakic (19 in 2000-01) are the only players with more. … The Blackhawks played without forward Andrew Mangiapane and defenseman Louis Crevier, who each sustained an undisclosed injury during the game Thursday. Blashill said he did not expect either injury to be long term but that it didn’t seem either player would be in the lineup against the Nashville Predators on Sunday.