In spite of their franchise-record road success, the Avalanche maintained throughout the final weeks of the regular season that playoff home ice was a worthwhile goal to chase.
Nathan MacKinnon understood that the Avs probably wouldn’t catch Vegas in the Western Conference, but “home ice in our division at least is big for us,” he told The Post.
The Avalanche achieved their goal Friday, with MacKinnon fittingly the one who pushed them over the top with a hat trick in a 4-3 win over the Predators in Nashville that clinched the Central Division title. Colorado (51-24-7) will face the Seattle Kraken in the first round of the playoffs, with Games 1 and 2 scheduled for Tuesday and Thursday at Ball Arena. Seattle qualified as the first wild card in the Western Conference, finishing fourth in the Pacific.
The winner of the series will take on the winner of Dallas vs. Minnesota in the second round.
The Avalanche would be the home team in that series as well, regardless of the opponent. They caught up with and passed Dallas for first place on the final day of the regular season after trailing by 14 points in the standings on Jan. 13.
This is the Avs’ 12th division championship since moving to Denver in 1995 and their third in a row. In the 2020-21 season, they won the President’s Trophy for the best record in the NHL, but in an altered division arrangement to accommodate for the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021-22, they came out on top in the Central then won their third Stanley Cup in franchise history.
“I think it should mean a lot to these guys,” Avs coach Jared Bednar told reporters. “I think these guys have put their heart and soul into this season, this regular season, getting stronger and stronger as the year has gone on.
“Against whatever adversity we’ve faced, we’ve had different guys step up at different times, and our leaders have been outstanding. To be able to accomplish our regular season goal of winning the division and securing home ice if we’re fortunate enough to make it into the second round, I think it’s a feather in our cap.”
This year’s division title, of course, was cemented by MacKinnon’s heroics in the Music City, with the last of his three goals on Friday night coming off an assist from Mikko Rantanen with the score tied at 3-all and just 1:42 left in regulation.
Rantanen fed MacKinnon to start a 2-on-1 rush that MacKinnon finished with a wrister to goalie Kevin Lankinen’s straight on for the fourth hat trick of his career.
MacKinnon also assisted on the only Avs goal he didn’t score — a Devon Toews tally just 28 seconds into the game that set the tone for a 3-1 Colorado first period — as he finished the regular-season with a career-high 111 points (42 goals, 69 assists).
“Obviously, I had some good looks tonight and managed to find the back of the net,” MacKinnon told reporters.
Rantanen closed out the season with 105 points while appearing in all 82 games for the Avs. His two assists on Friday put him at 50 for the campaign to go along with 55 goals.
The Kraken (46-28-8) are making their first-ever playoff appearance after joining the NHL as an expansion team last season. Colorado finished 1-1-1 against them in the regular season, with all three games decided by one goal, two requiring overtime and one going to a shootout. The visiting team prevailed in every matchup.
Seattle is coached by Dave Hakstol, the former Flyers coach who resurrected the Kraken after going 27-49-6 in the franchise’s inaugural season. Center Jared McCann leads the team with 40 goals and 70 points, and defenseman Vince Dunn leads the blue line by a wide margin with 64 points. No Kraken players reached 75 points this season, but seven finished with at least 45 and 13 finished with at least 30. Jordan Eberle, Daniel Sprong, Oliver Bjorkstrand, Jaden Schwartz and Matty Beniers all have 20 or more goals, in addition to McCann.
Beniers is a candidate for the Calder Memorial Trophy for the NHL’s best rookie, and Hakstol has a case for the Jack Adams Award for the league’s coach of the year.
The Kraken also feature a couple of familiar faces. Andre Burakovsky scored an overtime game-winning goal in the Stanley Cup Final for the Avalanche last season, and he received his championship ring last October when Seattle visited Ball Arena. But the forward has been out since early February with a lower-body injury. Seattle goalie Philipp Grubauer also played three seasons with Colorado. He battled former teammate Pavel Francouz in a shootout in January, with Francouz and the Avs emerging victorious.
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