{"id":554468,"date":"2026-03-21T07:23:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T07:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/554468\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T07:23:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T07:23:07","slug":"avalanche-determined-to-finish-as-top-seed-after-clinching-playoff-berth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/554468\/","title":{"rendered":"Avalanche determined to finish as top seed after clinching playoff berth"},"content":{"rendered":"

While the Avalanche find their game again, they\u2019re also finding their health again. Injured forwards Gabriel Landeskog<\/a>, Artturi Lehkonen<\/a>, Logan O’Connor<\/a> and Ross Colton<\/a> are all skating, and the hope is that all four can return during this four-game road trip.<\/p>\n

Landeskog, the Avalanche captain, and Lehkonen will bolster Colorado’s depth scoring when they return. Lehkonen has 42 points (19 goals, 23 assists) in 59 games, and Landeskog has 29 points (nine goals, 20 assists) in 47 games this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a lot of guys waiting in the wings injury-wise and being able to come back, but the lineup overall is just very competitive right now and that just amplifies a lot of play,\u201d\u00a0defenseman Cale Makar<\/a> said. \u201cNobody on this team shies away from that pressure, and that\u2019s an exciting thing to see obviously at this point of the season and hopefully when we get to the playoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regardless of lineup, the Avalanche wanted to turn things around after some disappointing results recently. They were especially frustrated after a 7-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Monday and wanted a quick response. They got it in a 2-1 shootout loss to the Stars on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn 5-on-5 we did a number of good things,” Nelson said. “We outshot them, felt we controlled most of the game. On the power play we had a big goal and the (penalty kill) did a great job. They\u2019re a pretty dangerous power play.<\/p>\n

\u201cWould\u2019ve liked to get one or two to kind of open it up and pull out the win but yeah, I think systematically and structure-wise, we played the game we talked about (with) bouncing back from the Pittsburgh game when we weren\u2019t very clean.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Avalanche are heading to the playoffs for the ninth consecutive season, tied for the longest active run in the NHL with the Toronto Maple Leafs. They\u2019ve gotten back to their style of hockey the past two games. Now to keep it going.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a good start, a good start. We\u2019ll be happy about that,\u201d coach Jared\u00a0Bednar said about the postseason clinching.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, we like what we\u2019re doing right now. Obviously, there are ebbs and flows to the season, but to this point of the season we\u2019ve put ourselves in a good spot here. We feel good about the way we\u2019re playing. Making the playoffs is the first step to where you want to go and we\u2019re pretty happy about that. Get 100 points and still a lot of season left to play.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While the Avalanche find their game again, they\u2019re also finding their health again. Injured forwards Gabriel Landeskog, Artturi…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":554469,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-554468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=554468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/554469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}