Avalanche secure top seed
Five-goal blitz also earns West Division title as Kings’ season ends on 0-4-1 streak.
DENVER — Tyson Jost scored two of Colorado’s five second-period goals as the Avalanche clinched the West Division and the top overall seed in the NHL playoffs with a 5-1 win over the Kings on Thursday night.
Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, Joonas Donskoi and Andre Burakovsky also scored in the pivotal period. Backup Jonas Johansson made 21 saves to help the Avalanche finish 7-1 against the Kings this season.
Colorado and Vegas both finished with 82 points, but the Avalanche earned the division crown and its first Presidents’ Trophy — awarded to the team with the best regular-season mark — since 2001 because of more regulation wins.
Colorado begins a firstround series Monday against St. Louis, which wound up with the fourth seed in the West.
Sean Walker scored late in the first period for the Kings as they wrapped up their season on an 0-4-1 skid. Troy Grosenick stopped 38 shots.
Kings forward Drake Rymsha made his NHL debut and played 13 minutes.
The action got a little heated late in the second when Kings forward Brendan Lemieux collided with Avalanche defenseman Samuel Girard near mid-ice. Girard’s fellow defenseman, Ryan Graves, took exception and immediately dropped the gloves to square off against Lemieux.
Johansson stepped in for starter Philipp Grubauer, who shut out the Kings in a 6-0 win Wednesday. Avalanche coach Jared Bednar hasn’t played Grubauer in back-to-back games all season and didn’t want to start now, despite the importance.
Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon sat out for the fourth time in five games because of a lower-body injury. The team went 4-0 in the games he missed.