Avalanche beat Blues to clinch final playoff spot, will face Preds in Round 1

The Colorado Avalanche are in and the St. Louis Blues are out.

Colorado secured the final Western Conference playoff spot with a 5-2 victory over the Blues Saturday night.

The Avalanche will face the Nashville Predators - winners of the Presidents' Trophy with the best record in the league - in the first round.

St. Louis missed the playoffs for the first time since 2010-11, ending a run of six straight postseason berths.

Colorado managed to qualify despite losing their No. 1 goaltender, Semyon Varlamov, for the season and their average time-on-ice leader, Erik Johnson, for six weeks due to injuries last Saturday.

The Avalanche (43-30-9) improved dramatically this season after finishing with the worst record in the salary-cap era (22-56-4) in 2016-17.

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