Preview: Blues vs. Avalanche

BLUES It wasn’t pretty, but the St. Louis Blues have now won four games in a row.

Sunday evening, they pulled out a 4-2 win over the Anaheim Ducks at Enterprise Center.

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St. Louis’ special teams were the story. After going scoreless on their first three attempts Sunday, the Blues rattled off three power-play goals in the third period, including two from Robert Thomas.

“I thought we were just being more direct,” Jake Neighbours said postgame. “We started putting more stuff towards the net. That creates chaos, and that’s when things open up for you.”

The Blues are heating up at the right time as they push for the playoffs. With a win Tuesday, they’ll tie the longest win streak of the year and sweep a multi-game homestand for the first time this season.

“We’re starting to play well,” Blues Head Coach Drew Bannister said. “And we always seem to get up for teams that are highly competitive like Colorado… Our main objective here is just to keep moving forward, get as many points as we can and win as many hockey games moving forward here towards the end of the season.”

Tuesday’s battle with the Avs is the last home contest before a pair of road games in Ottawa and Minnesota. The Blues come back to Enterprise Center on March 25 to host the Vegas Golden Knights.

Vegas currently holds the final Wild Card spot, but the Blues (36-29-3) are closing the gap. They’re currently the first team out, trailing the Golden Knights by four points. Vegas is 4-5-1 in its last 10 games, so this upcoming stretch is a great chance for the Blues to have the upper hand by Monday night.

AVALANCHE The Colorado Avalanche have been rolling lately, winning six games in a row and all three of their current road trip. Their win streak is currently the longest active streak in the League.

The Avalanche have had some close calls lately, needing overtime against Vancouver and Edmonton. In their last game against the Oilers, Artturi Lehkonen tipped a puck past Stuart Skinner to win it with just one second left.

“It was great,” defenseman Sean Walker said after the win. “Obviously it’s getting down to it at the end of the year here. We’ve got to ramp it up. This is the time of year we’re going into playoffs, so every game’s going to be like that coming soon.”

Walker, who Colorado acquired from Philadelphia on March 6, scored twice Saturday night – his first in the burgundy and blue. Walker was one of three players the Avalanche acquired at the trade deadline, also landing Casey Mittelstadt and Brandon Duhaime.

“It’s a different group for us now,” Head Coach Jared Bednar said. “We’ve added all these players, we have a little bit different personality, guys are re-energized after the trade deadline. New guys are coming in and we’re still certifying how all the pieces fit together…If we keep playing like this we’ll win a lot of games regardless of where we are.”

The Avalanche (43-20-5) are gearing up for the playoffs, and now they’re fighting for seeding. They’re currently tied with Dallas and Winnipeg for the top seed in the Central Division.

HEAD TO HEAD This is the fourth and final meeting between St. Louis and Colorado this season. The Avs won the most recent meeting on Dec. 29, 2-1, and they lead the season series 2-1.

PLAYERS TO WATCH

BLUES For Pavel Buchnevich, good things have come in threes. He dished out three assists Sunday evening, marking his seventh game this season with three or more points. One of those seven happened in Colorado, where Buchnevich scored his first hat trick of the season.

AVALANCHE Mikko Rantanen was held scoreless in Colorado’s last game, but he’s still dominated as of late. Rantanen has 11 points in his last five games, including two four-point outings against Calgary and Detroit.

BLUE NOTES

• The Blues have also won five straight games at home (since Feb. 22) and will look to win six straight home games for the first time since 2022 (March 28 – April 16).
• The Blues have scored a power-play goal in 10 of their last 14 games against Colorado, going 12 for 45 (26.7%) on the power play over those 14 games.
• Both Brayden Schenn and Pavel Buchnevich each scored three goals on Nov. 11 at Colorado, becoming the third pair of Blues players to score a hat trick in the same game, following Doug Gilmour and Mark Hunter (Feb. 23, 1986) as well as Kevin LaVallee and Dave Barr (Oct. 20, 1984).
• Robert Thomas has 41 points (13 goals, 28 assists) at home this season, which shares 12th in the NHL. Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon leads the league with 71 home points.