You could feel the nervous energy in the crowd after the first period. The Avalanche dominated the Kings for 20 minutes but somehow found themselves down by a goal. The fans were worried. Would they somehow find a way to blow it?

NOPE.

Unfazed being down by one, and completely dominating the puck yet again, the Avs exploded for five unanswered goals in the second period. Tyson Jost, filling in on the top line in place of injured superstar Nathan MacKinnon, got things going with two goals on back-to-back shifts, and the team just kept coming from there, with Pierre-Eduoard Bellemare, Joonas Donskoi, and Andre Burakovsky adding tallies of their own.

From that point on, the game was smooth sailing. The third period was typical run-out-the-clock stuff, and the Avs came away with the big 5-1 victory behind solid goaltending from Jonas Johansson.

This is the third time in franchise history the Avalanche have won the President’s Trophy. The last time they finished on top of the league was in 2001, and we all know how that season ended. The Avs are hoping for a similar finish to this season, lifting Lord Stanley’s Cup in July.

The big reward of winning the President’s Trophy is home-ice advantage throughout the playoffs. Ball Arena will be allowing more fans into the building for game one, and given how dominant the Avs have been at home all season long, more fans to get behind them will only make it more difficult for opposing teams.

They now set their sights set on the St. Louis Blues, who will be their matchup in round one.  The Avs took the season series, winning five of the eight matchups, but dropped the two most recent matchups without their starting goaltender Philipp Grubauer, who was out due to Covid-19.

The series will kick off Monday, May 17 at 8 PM MST at the Ball Arena. Got to love that start time…

TAKEAWAYS

• The Avs locked down the President’s Trophy with Jonas Johansson in net. Who would have imagined that sentence being a possibility five months ago?
• Alex Newhook played his best game yet, as the puck found him more than it has in his previous five games, and even got a look on the penalty kill late. Could this be a sign he’ll be in the lineup Monday night when the Avs open their series? We’ll just have to wait and see.
• Among a handful of great performances, the best might have come from Devon Toews, who dominated all over the ice. It took the Kings 31 minutes to attempt a shot on net with Toews on the ice.
• Sam Girard took a big hit at center ice from Brendan Lemieux towards the end of the second period, which prompted Ryan Graves to rip off 60% of Lemieux’s gear in a wrestling match. I’m not sure you can call it a fight because there was not a single punch thrown, from what I saw.
• Perhaps most importantly, the Avs seemed to come out of this game injury-free. We’ll see who they get back for Monday.
• That’ll do it for the regular season, but stick to DNVR for tons of upcoming coverage in the postseason.