Colorado Avalanche clinch Central Division title
By virtue of their win over the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday night, the Colorado Avalanche have officially clinched the top spot in the Central Division.
A two-goal effort by Valeri Nichushkin was enough to power the Avalanche to the win over St. Louis, which saw its dwindling playoff hopes nearly fully snuffed out on Tuesday.
The Avs winning the Central had been something of a foregone conclusion for the vast majority of the season, as Colorado’s historic start staked the team to a massive edge, but their divisional foes in the Dallas Stars and Minnesota Wild did not make it easy by doing everything they could to keep pace.
The Avs’ torrid start had them at 30-2-7 on New Year’s Day. They’ve gone just 20-14-3 since then, still certainly a playoff pace, but the heavy lifting that enabled Colorado’s clinch was done early.
An impressive season from Nathan MacKinnon, who leads the league with 51 goals, along with a career-best year from Martin Necas has helped power Colorado to another year of high-octane hockey.
By locking up their division, the Avalanche also clinched the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference, as there has long been no scenario where the Pacific Division winner finishes ahead of the Central Division winner.
That means Colorado will square off against whichever team is able to claim the second wild card spot in the conference, which is set to come down to a hotly-contested race to the finish line with the Nashville Predators, Los Angeles Kings, San Jose Sharks and Winnipeg Jets still in the running.
The Avalanche will look to win their second Stanley Cup championship in five years after claiming it in 2022. Since that postseason, the group has just one postseason series win.
Colorado was knocked out in the first round in 2025 by the Stars, as their former star Mikko Rantanen delivered a Game 7 hat trick for his new team. The Avalanche made it to the second round in 2024, and in 2023, they were stunned by the Seattle Kraken in the first round during their bid to repeat as Champs.