Defeating the Colorado Avalanche once has proven to be a difficult assignment for most teams, but defeating them twice in a row seems akin to ascending Mount Everest.
That’s the mountain that the St. Louis Blues must climb to pick up crucial points Tuesday night when they welcome the Avalanche in the second half of a home-and-home set.
Robert Thomas scored with 2:50 remaining in the third period as a part of his first career hat trick to carry the Blues to a 3-2 road victory over Colorado on Sunday.
“It’s taken a long time, so it feels good,” Thomas said of his goal-scoring feat. “A little bit of a relief, but yeah, it’s been a while.”
Thomas got some help from his linemates en route to the hat trick, with Jimmy Snuggerud and Dylan Holloway each tallying three assists in the victory.
The Blues (33-31-12, 78 points) enter Tuesday firmly entrenched in the tightly contested race for the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference thanks to an extended streak of winning hockey, with a 6-1-1 record over their past eight games and 13 wins since the Olympic break (13-3-3).
St. Louis’ top talents have led by example during this stretch. Thomas has picked up points in five straight games (five goals, five assists), while Holloway has a six-game point streak (four goals, seven assists).
“We’re having fun as a team, we’re trying to win games, we’re doing our best to possibly do that,” Snuggerud said. “Coming into this building is a tough one, and I thought we rose to the occasion, and we need to do the same thing at home.”
Despite Sunday’s defeat, the Avalanche (50-16-10, 110 points) are on the brink of winning the Presidents’ Trophy for the fourth time in franchise history, waiting on just one more victory or a Dallas Stars loss in regulation to secure the top spot in the Western Conference.
Colorado most recently topped the league with 82 points during the shortened 56-game regular season back in 2020-21.
Only one night after suiting up for his 1,000th consecutive contest, Brent Burns turned back the clock with a two-point performance (one goal, one assist) on Sunday, while Parker Kelly reached the 20-goal plateau for the first time in his career.
“Things are just going in. I mean, like this one goes off my stick then off their guy. So, little bit of luck,” Kelly said. “I’m happy with the year I’ve been having, but yeah, we still got (six) games here, and we need to get a couple more wins here. That’s the priority.”
Forward Valeri Nichushkin missed Sunday’s clash due to an upper-body injury, but he could be available for the second game of the set.
“He’s probably a possibility even for Tuesday. We’ll just see how he feels the next couple days. Just that time of year,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar told the media. “You get some little bumps and bruises. Everybody has them, but sometimes there’s something a little bit more significant. I don’t want to be playing guys hurt if it can get worse. So, you got to be careful on some of them. That’s what we did today with Val.”
Avalanche superstar Nathan MacKinnon, who leads the league with 51 goals and sits third in points with 122, will be looking to get back on the scoresheet after being blanked Sunday.
