After beating the Calgary Flames 9–2 on Monday last week, the Colorado Avalanche battled them once more. This time had a little more meaning to it, though. If the Avs win, they take home their fourth President’s Trophy in franchise history and home-ice throughout all playoffs. Colorado played a dominant game on Thursday for the 3–1 victory and some new hardware in the trophy case.

View from the Mountaintop

Colorado has been one of the most dominant teams in NHL history. They are the only team in league history to take first place on November 1st and hold it the entire season. That is 166 days in a row!

The Flames may have slowed down the Avalanche a little throughout the game. The entire game, Calgary clogged up the neutral zone as they would get two or three men on the player with the puck. It forced the Avalanche to chip the puck over the neutral zone for a dump-and-chase for a good chunk of the first half.

The Avalanche power play continued to stay hot despite Nazem Kadri’s absence. It took only seven seconds for Gabriel Landeskog to win the draw and get to the front of the net. He then waited for Nathan MacKinnon’s pass across the crease and hammered the shot in.

Martin Necas is playing his best hockey at the right time of the year. He tallied one goal and two assists on Thursday night to put him at 98 points for the year. He has four more games to reach 100 points, a milestone he has never reached before in his career. His goal against Dustin Wolf demonstrated how much the game has simplified for him since returning from the Olympics.

Nathan MacKinnon added an empty-net goal at the end of the game to give him 52 goals for the season. The goal set a new career high that he set in 2023–24 with 51 and is now racing Cole Caufield for the most in the NHL.

Up next

The Avalanche continue their home stand with a battle against the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday at 6 p.m. MT. ABC will broadcast the game.