Valeri Nichushkin scored twice in Colorado’s four-goal first period, Nathan MacKinnon had two assists to reach 140 points and the Avalanche beat the Edmonton Oilers 5-1 in Denver on Thursday night.
MacKinnon, who finished second in scoring in the NHL, set the franchise record for points in a season, topping Peter Stastny’s 139 points in 1981-82 with the Quebec Nordiques.
Mikko Rantanen and Josh Manson scored, Zach Parise had a goal in his final regular-season game and Justus Annunen made 25 saves for Colorado (50-25-7, 107 points), which opens the playoffs at Winnipeg on Sunday night.
Avalanche forward Jonathan Drouin left the game late in the second period with a lower-body injury and didn’t return.
Dylan Holloway scored and Calvin Pickard turned away 13 shots in relief of Stuart Skinner, who logged nine saves on 13 shots in the first period for Edmonton (49-27-6, 104 points).
With their playoff seed set, the Oilers opted to rest many of their stars, including their top five scorers. Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Evan Bouchard, Zach Hyman and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins were all healthy scratches.
Colorado played all of its healthy players except for goaltender Alexandar Georgiev, who will now have a week off ahead of Game 1 vs. the Jets.
Edmonton opens the playoffs against the Los Angeles Kings — the teams’ third first-round meeting in as many years — on Monday.
The Avalanche took quick advantage of Edmonton’s fill-in lineup. Nichushkin scored 1:19 into the game when he buried a one-timer on a pass from Artturi Lehkonen. Rantanen’s 42nd goal of the season at 5:48 of the first period gave Colorado a 2-0 lead.
Nichushkin scored his second of the game and 28th of the season on a power play at 7:37. MacKinnon and Cale Makar were credited with the assists. That gave MacKinnon the franchise single-season scoring record while Makar became the 12th defenseman in NHL history to reach 90 points.
Manson’s eighth goal of the season at 10:17 made it 4-0, but Holloway’s power-play goal at 15:22 of the first got Edmonton on the board. It was his sixth of the season.
Parise got the only goal of the second period, his fifth of the season, at the 12-minute mark.
–Field Level Media
