After taking a period off and falling behind 5-1, The Avalanche scored and avalanche of goals, 5 to be exact, all in the 2nd period to cruise to the win, and secure The President's Trophy as the team with the best record in hockey. It's the first time they've had the best regular season record since 2001, when of course, they won their last Stanley Cup Championship.
Tyson Jost scored twice and was chasing a hat-trick and said his teammates were doing all they could to help him get that final goal, "100 percent they were. It’s awesome, they wanted me to get that 3rd one, it shows how close we are. There are probably 5 or 6 where guys could’ve shot it…it’s even nicer we got the win."
Jonas Johansson stopped all but 1 of the 21 shots he faced.
Mikko Rantanen had 2 assists to reach a team high 66 points on the season, passing Nathan MacKinnon's 65, and tying him for 5th most in the NHL. But, he said postgame he doesn't focus on individual records, "my goal isn’t to get the most points…my line mates helped me…otherwise, everybody is pulling the same rope in the same direction, I don’t really look at that…"
He added that it's nice to be the team with the most points, but that's not their ultimate goal.
The win allows the Avalanche an extra day to rest something Head Coach Jared Bednar said, "definitely helps," but they didn't want too much time off. He said they'd have a day off, then an optional skate, and probably be back on the ice Sunday, before Monday's opener against the Blues at Ball Arena. Bednar certainly appreciates the significance of winning the President's Trophy, a goal they set at the beginning of the year. In fact, he mentioned they've been working towards it for a few years. "A couple of years ago in San Jose, we lost game 7, and we said, it would've been nice to have home ice advantage," Bednar said.
The Avs tied a franchise mark with a point in 17 straight home games, going 16-0-1 in that stretch. Thus playing at home should be a nice boost for Bednar's club, but he downplayed home ice a bit, "It can’t hurt, the playoffs is a totally different animal, everybody knows that. No one’s gonna look at us and say, ‘they won the President’s trophy and rollover on their back…nobody’s gonna put anymore pressure on us than ourselves…we like playing at Ball, in front of our fans, now we’re starting a new journey to make our city and fans proud of us in the post-season."
Below is the Avalanche Postgame Press Conference:
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