BLUES AT AVALANCHE
When: Friday, April 2 at 8 p.m. CT
Where: Ball Arena in Denver, Colorado
Watch: Bally Sports Midwest, FOX Sports GO
Listen: Q94 93.9 fm 101 ESPN, NHL App
Season series presented by Bud Light Seltzer: Tied 1-1
The St. Louis Blues and Colorado Avalanche have not met since going head-to-head with a two-game set to begin the 2020-21 season in January. The teams will meet six times in the month of April.
TEAM SNAPSHOTS
BLUES The Blues will get back to work Friday for back-to-back games against Colorado after having a four-day break.
In their last game on Sunday, St. Louis had a 2-0 lead but the Anaheim Ducks battled back to take a 3-2 win in overtime.
The loss was the Blues’ fourth straight.
“I definitely didn’t expect us to be in this position,” Blues captain Ryan O’Reilly said of the team struggling to find wins. “I know how good we can be and our personnel, how good it is, but this happens. I think none of us expected it, but there’s definitely growth to be had. We have to find a way out. The only way we’re going to do it is together, and if we don’t we obviously won’t be where we want to. But it’s challenging for every one of us.”
As of Thursday, the Blues found themselves holding on to the fourth and final playoff spot in the West Division, just one point ahead of the fifth place Coyotes.
AVALANCHE Joonas Donskoi paced the Colorado Avalanche to a 9-3 rout of the Arizona Coyotes in their last game on Wednesday night at Ball Arena.
Donskoi had a hat trick just 7:31 into the game, recording the fastest hat trick by an Avalanche / Quebec Nordiques player to begin a game.
The Avalanche lead the West Division with 50 points (23-8-4) and have collected points in 12 straight games (10-0-2).
“It’s been a good season so far, the last month or five weeks we’ve really hit our stride once we started getting healthy,” Gabriel Landeskog told NHL.com. “We know what kind of team we had, and I think we’ve shown it over the last five, six weeks. There’s still steps we can take. For us, it’s important that we keep working, keep trying to achieve first place in the division when the season is over and put ourselves in a good spot for the playoffs.”
Mikko Rantanen leads the Avalanche with 43 points (21 goals, 22 assists) in 35 games this season. Nathan MacKinnon has 40 points (10 goals, 30 assists) in 31 games. Goalie Phillip Grubauer leads the League with 22 wins.
THE SERIES SO FAR
Jan. 13: Blues 4, Avalanche 1
Mike Hoffman expected to make his Blues debut but was a last-minute scratch due to his work visa still needing approval. Without Hoffman on the second line, Oskar Sundqvist was promoted and delivered immediately, netting two goals in a 4-1 win on Opening Night. Jordan Kyrou and Kyle Clifford also scored in the victory. Jordan Binnington made 26 saves in his first win of the season.
Jan. 15: Avalanche 8, Blues 0
Colorado scored five times on the power play in an 8-0 rout of the Blues in the second game of the season. Nathan MacKinnon had a goal and two assists, while Gabriel Landeskog scored twice, in an 8-0 Avalanche victory.
