Avalanche close in on playoff spot
ST. PAUL, Minnesota — The Colorado Avalanche have little margin for error as they chase a playoff spot with nine games remaining.
They got a much-needed victory Tuesday night against the team just ahead of them in the standings.
Philipp Grubauer made 36 saves to lift the Avalanche to a 3-1 win over the Wild on Tuesday night in a game that had playoff implications in Minnesota and elsewhere.
Langford’s Tyson Barrie, Tyson Jost and Ian Cole scored for Colorado, which won its second straight game.
“It’s pretty much Game 7 from here on out and that’s how we’re attacking these last nine games,” Jost said.
Minnesota remained one point behind the idle Arizona Coyotes for the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference, while the Avalanche got within one point of the Wild and two of Arizona. Colorado also has a game in hand on Minnesota.
“This one tonight, I think for us, it was as close as you can get to a must-win this time of year,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “I don’t know that they needed to win it, but we certainly did to try and get closer and inch closer because the runway’s running out.”
The result also clinched a playoff berth for the San Jose Sharks, who are second in the Western Conference.
Zach Parise scored and Devan Dubnyk stopped 35 shots for Minnesota.
Colorado struck first with a tally by Barrie, his third goal in his last two games. Barrie fired a centring pass from Carl Soderberg to beat Dubnyk with 14:57 left in the first period.
The Wild evened things early in the second period on a power play. Parise deflected a shot from Ryan Suter that slipped past Grubauer 1:52 into the period. It was Parise’s team-leading 26th goal of the season.
Colorado went ahead minutes later when Jost found space on a breakaway and fired a backhand shot past Dubnyk. It was Jost’s first goal in 10 games and his fourth since being recalled from the minors in mid-February. PHILADELPHIA — Montreal didn’t need all 240 characters to express on Twitter the importance of beating the Flyers: “Les Canadiens remportent une grosse victoire!” In any language, this much was clear for a team making a desperate playoff push, the Canadiens won a big one.
Brendan Gallagher, Shea Weber and Max Domi scored goals, Carey Price stopped 32 shots and the Canadiens earned a 3-1 win over the fading Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday night.
“We can win our games, that’s all we can control,” Weber said.
The Canadiens and Flyers are both chasing a wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. Montreal is one point behind Columbus for eighth place in the East and the Flyers are six points out with 78.
“I think maybe we’ve been a little bit preoccupied with what’s been going on around the league,” Gallagher said. “We’ve got to do a better job with just focusing on ourselves.”