Avalanche clinch Presidents’ Trophy with narrow win over Flames

Nathan MacKinnon and Martin Necas had a goal and two assists each, and the Colorado Avalanche beat the Calgary Flames 3-1 in Denver on Thursday night to clinch the top overall seed for the postseason.

MacKinnon set a career high with his 52nd goal, Gabriel Landeskog also scored and Mackenzie Blackwood turned away 28 shots for Colorado. The Avalanche (54-16-10, 114 points) clinched the Presidents' Trophy for the fourth time since relocating to Colorado 31 years ago.

Carolina, with 108 points, could match the Avalanche in total points, but Colorado holds the tiebreaker between the teams by virtue of winning the season series 1-0-1.

The Avalanche also captured the top seed in 1996-97, 2000-01 and 2021-22. They won the Stanley Cup the last two times they won the Presidents' Trophy.

Tyson Gross scored his first NHL goal in his third career game and Dustin Wolf made 38 saves for Calgary (32-37-9, 73 points), which has dropped three of its last four games.

The Avalanche played without center Nazem Kadri, who sustained a finger injury in their 3-1 win at St. Louis on Tuesday night. Head coach Jared Bednar said before Thursday's game he expects Kadri to return by the end of the regular season.

The game was scoreless until late in the first period when Calgary's John Beecher took a hooking minor. Six seconds into the power play, MacKinnon sent a pass through the crease to Landeskog at the far post, and he tapped it in at 18:44.

Necas extended the lead late in the second period. He sent a pass to MacKinnon down low, got it right back, stickhandled through the slot and lifted a shot over the sprawling Wolf at 15:01.

It was his career-best 38th goal of the season.

Wolf came off for an extra skater with 3:46 remaining, and Gross scored at 17:08 to cut the deficit in half. Gross appeared to tie it 1:23 later with Wolf off again, but Colorado successfully challenged for offsides. Less than a minute later, MacKinnon scored into the empty net to extend his NHL lead in goals.

--Field Level Media