Avalanche at Blues
With third place in the Central Division locked up, the St. Louis Blues look to head into the playoffs with a three-game winning streak as they host the Colorado Avalanche on Sunday in the regular-season finale for both teams. The Blues secured a first-round matchup against second-place Minnesota with a 5-4 shootout victory at Carolina on Saturday.
Scottie Upshall recorded a goal and an assist while Vladimir Tarasenko set up a pair of tallies before netting the decisive score in the fourth round of the shootout. Colorado has lost three of its last four contests, including a 4-3 shootout setback on Saturday in Dallas. The Avalanche rank last in the NHL with 48 points and hope to avoid being the only team without a double-digit win total on the road as they stand at 9-29-2. Colorado has lost 11 in a row away from home (0-10-1), last winning on the road on Feb. 17 at Carolina in overtime.
TV: 6 p.m. ET, Altitude2 (Colorado), FSN Midwest (St. Louis)
ABOUT THE AVALANCHE (22-55-4): Mikko Rantanen grabbed sole possession of the team lead in goals as he scored his 19th on Saturday, moving one ahead of captain Gabriel Landeskog and Matt Duchene. Landeskog also tallied against the Stars, giving him three goals during his four-game point streak while leaving him two shy of his fourth straight 20-goal season. Nathan MacKinnon, who recorded Colorado's other goal on Saturday, will be appearing in his 300th NHL contest on Sunday.
ABOUT THE BLUES (45-29-7): Vladimir Sobotka, who spent the last three seasons in the Kontinental Hockey League, signed a three-year, $10.5 million contract that will begin in 2017-18. The 29-year-old Czech, who hasn't played for St. Louis since 2013-14, participated in Saturday's morning skate as he fulfills the one-year deal he signed for the 2014-15 campaign and hopes to be in the lineup on Sunday. "It's finally over," Sobotka, who has recorded 35 goals and 88 assists in 381 NHL games, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "I was really tired to read stuff about me, where I’m going to play next year. It’s been going on too long and I’m happy that it’s over now and everything is fine."
OVERTIME
1. Avalanche D Francois Beauchemin is two assists away from 200 for his career after notching one on Saturday.
2. St. Louis won the first three meetings of the season before the Avalanche emerged victorious in a shootout on March 31 in the third matchup of the month in Colorado.
3. Colorado has not posted a regulation win on the road since topping Toronto on Dec. 11.