*Photo from the Denver Post*
Colorado wins series 4-0
St.Louis Blues captain Ryan O'Reilly said before the series that the Blues would have some fun and beat the Colorado Avalanche. Well, Colorado took that to heart. Gabe Landeskog scored, Mikko Rantanen scored the winning goal, and the Avalanche defeated the Blues with a 5-2 win Sunday evening.
With the win, the Avalanche finalized a sweep of the Blues in a one sided first round matchup, and booked their ticket to the second round, where they will play the winner of the Vegas Golden Knights and Minnesota Wild series, which Vegas currently leads 3-1. A start date for the series has not yet been determined.
Rantanen said of winning game 4 that "It was probably the toughest game for us. I think like Game 2, we weren't really happy how we played. But I think last two games we wrapped up the series really well and found a way to play kind of grinding hockey, so everybody knows we have the speed and the skill. But in the playoffs, sometimes you have to grind wins too, and I think that's what we did last two games."
After the Blues got a 1-0 lead in the second period, Brandon Saad tied it for the Avalanche with his 3rd goal of the playoffs. Later in the second, Landeskog scored to give Colorado a 2-1 lead. In the 3rd, sandwiched between a Blues goal, Rantanen scored his first goal of the playoffs, and Nathan MacKinnon and Valeri Nichushkin both scored on the empty net, sealing the 5-2 win.
Philipp Grubauer got his 4th straight win of the playoffs in goal for the Avalanche, stopping 18 of 20 shots he faced to keep the Blues off the scoreboard, save for two goals. By sweeping the Blues, Grubauer and the Avalanche will get a good amount of rest before round two starts at the Avs home arena.
Grubauer said "I think it's huge to get a couple days, but most important how we played every game, 60 minutes, every shift. Every, every small detail matters in the playoffs. I think we found a way to do that in every game and that's going to be the key moving forward too."
St.Louis got a goal from Vladimir Tarasenko 4:25 into the second period, giving them a 1-0 lead to work with. After 3 straight goals from Colorado, Tarasenko scored again to cut the deficit to 3-2, but two empty net goals from the Avs ended any hopes of a comeback.
Tarasenko said after the game "To tell you honestly, I'm not ready for these questions right now. To answer all of those is there's no excuses. I can say whatever I want to say, and say like we don't fight enough, but it is what it is. This is embarrassing. It's always hard to lose in the playoffs, especially like this. There are no words, that much you can see."
The Avalanche will await the winner of Golden Knights-Wild in the second round of the playoffs, while the Blues will transition into offseason mode, as they prepare for next season.
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