{"id":550377,"date":"2026-03-21T03:31:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T03:31:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/550377\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T03:31:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T03:31:13","slug":"avalanche-first-to-clinch-playoff-berth-with-win-over-blackhawks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/550377\/","title":{"rendered":"Avalanche first to clinch playoff berth with win over Blackhawks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>CHICAGO \u2014 Nathan MacKinnon had three assists in Colorado&#8217;s 4-1 victory over the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/hockey\/nhl\/teams\/chicago-blackhawks\/\" class=\"sn-team-post-link\" target=\"_self\" data-team=\"chicago-blackhawks\" data-league=\"nhl\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Chicago Blackhawks<\/a> on Friday night, helping the Avalanche become the first NHL team to clinch a playoff spot this season.<\/p>\n<p>Martin Necas had a goal and two assists for Colorado, which had lost four of five. Nazem Kadri, Brock Nelson and Valeri Nichushkin also scored.<\/p>\n<p>The league-leading Avalanche (45-13-10) moved four points ahead of idle Dallas for the top spot in the Western Conference.<\/p>\n<p>Wyatt Kaiser scored for Chicago (26-31-12), and Arvid Soderblom stopped 45 shots.<\/p>\n<p>The Blackhawks played without defenceman\u00a0Louis Crevier\u00a0and forward Andrew Mangiapane because of unspecified injuries. They were hurt Thursday night in a\u00a02-1 victory\u00a0at Minnesota.<\/p>\n<p>Kadri made it 3-1 with a power-play goal 36 seconds into the third period. It was Kadri&#8217;s second goal in seven games since he was reacquired by Colorado\u00a0in a trade\u00a0with Calgary.<\/p>\n<p>Nichushkin helped close it out with his 15th goal at 8:34. MacKinnon picked up his team-high 69th assist on the play.<\/p>\n<p>Colorado jumped in front with two goals during a dominant first period.<\/p>\n<p>Slick passes by MacKinnon and Nichushkin set up Necas for his 32nd goal at 13:19, extending his career high. Necas has 10 goals and 12 assists in his last 13 games.<\/p>\n<p>Nelson added a power-play goal at 15:22. It was Nelson&#8217;s first goal since Feb. 25 and No. 31 on the year.<\/p>\n<p>Chicago trimmed the deficit to 2-1 on Kaiser&#8217;s sixth goal 6:48 into the second. Ryan Greene found a streaking Kaiser with a perfectly placed pass, and the defenseman beat Mackenzie Blackwood through the goaltender&#8217;s legs.<\/p>\n<p>The Avalanche are at the Washington Capitals on Sunday. The Blackhawks host the Nashville Predators on Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO \u2014 Nathan MacKinnon had three assists in Colorado&#8217;s 4-1 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Friday night,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":550378,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-550377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=550377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/550378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}