Avalanche vs Blues Odds: Colorado Favored to Close Series on Road

St. Louis Rallies, Staves off Elimination Against Avs

St. Louis Comeback has Colorado Singing the Blues

Even though the goal by Colorado’s Gabriel Landeskog came early in the second period, it seemed like the second-round series between St. Louis and Colorado was on its last legs. The Avalanche vs Blues odds that favored Colorado throughout the series were looking pretty good.

The favored Avalanche were playing at home with a three-goal lead and the chance to eliminate a St. Louis squad without its top goalie. With several players remaining from the Blues’ run to the 2019 Stanley Cup title, St. Louis did not go away quietly. Robert Thomas had his first two goals of the playoffs, Ville Husso stopped 11 of the last 12 shots he faced, including all five in overtime, and a goal by veteran Tyler Bozak – which sent the series back to St. Louis for Game 6.

If the Blues can win at home to force the game back to Colorado for Game 7, there will be plenty of pressure on a Colorado team that has come up short in the postseason in recent years.

Colorado is the overwhelming favorite to win the NHL title according to the Stanley Cup betting odds. The odds dropped from +175 to +135 following the Game 5 loss. The odds for St. Louis moved from +8000 to +3300.

Avalanche vs Blues Game Information

  • Game: Avalanche (56-19-7) Blues (49-22-11 in the regular season)
  • Location: Enterprise Center, St. Louis
  • Day/Time: Friday, 8:00 p.m. ET
  • Television: TNT

MacKinnon is Lighting Up the Blues

Nathan MacKinnon looked like a player very eager to put his team’s past playoff failures behind him. MacKinnon didn’t have a goal in the first four games of the series.

That changed in Game 5 when MacKinnon had three goals, including a highlight-reel coast-to-coast rush that resulted in the go-ahead goal with 2:46 left to play. MacKinnon also assisted on a goal by Gabriel Landeskog giving him nine goals and seven assists in the last nine playoff games against St. Louis.

“We got on our heels a little bit,” MacKinnon said. “We wanted it so bad. Win the third and go to the conference finals. We’ve got to keep our game going. That’s what we’ll do.”

This was the first game in the series when the Avalanche scored first. MacKinnon took care of that with two goals, including one on the power play in the first period.

MacKinnon will look to carry that momentum over to Game 6 even though he has had much more success at home in the postseason against the Blues. In four playoff games in St. Louis, MacKinnon has one goal and two assists compared to eight goals and five assists in five home contests. Despite those numbers, the Avalanche vs Blues odds are calling for MacKinnon and St. Louis to punch their ticket to the Western Conference Final.

Thomas Comes up Huge for Blues

During Robert Thomas’ breakthrough season for the St. Louis Blues, he averaged at least a point per game against 20 of the 25 teams when he faced a team at least twice. One of the teams where points were hard to come by happen to be the Colorado Avalanche.

Thomas had no goals and one assist in three games during the regular season against Colorado. That was followed by no points in the first four games in this series.

Thomas was one of nine St. Louis players with at least 20 goals during the regular season and he was second on the team with 77 points and it seemed like more of a case of ‘if and not when’ he would finally deliver. Thomas had no goals in his first 11 playoff games. He delivered a pair of clutch goals to keep the season alive for the Blues.

Thomas’ goal midway through the third period made it a one-goal game before Jordan Kyrou tied it up with less than five minutes remaining. When a mesmerizing end-to-end rush by MacKinnon gave the lead back to the Avalanche, Thomas scored with 56 seconds in the third period.

“You’ve got nothing to lose, you might as well throw it all out there,” Thomas said after the game. “That was our mentality.”

That set the stage for veteran Tyler Bozak. The fourth-line center had five goals and eight assists during the Blues’ title run in 2019. Since then, Bozak had two goals and three assists in 22 playoff games. Bozak, who didn’t have a point in the first four games of the series, scored in overtime to send the series back to St. Louis.

Blues vs Avalanche Betting Preview

This will be the 12th straight postseason game when Colorado is favored against St. Louis with the Avalanche going 9-2 during that time. Five of those contests were decided by one goal.

The Avalanche have won the last five playoff games in St. Louis and have outscored the Blues 21-8 in those games. The total has gone over in each of the last five times that Colorado has traveled to the Enterprise Center.

Colorado had won the last six postseason games against St. Louis featuring at least six combined goals before the Blues rallied for a 5-4 win in overtime on Wednesday.

The series price for Colorado moved from -3000 to -750 following the Game 5 loss.

Colorado and St. Louis are first and second in the Stanley Cup Playoffs in success rate on the power play. Colorado is converting 33.3 percent of the time and St. Louis is at 32.4 percent.

It might surprise some people to find out that the Blues were more successful on the power play during the regular season than the Avalanche. St. Louis ranked second and Colorado seventh in power play percentage. During the series, St. Louis is 4 for 11 and Colorado 2 for 11 with the man advantage. Colorado is 5 for 10 on the power play, -on the road-during the playoffs-, and that information could prove useful in the NHL betting strategy  for this game.

Both teams will be without top, ‘puck-moving defensemen’. Torey Krug has missed the entire series for St. Louis while Colorado’s Samuel Girard suffered a season-ending broken sternum in Game 3 of the series. St. Louis did get defenseman Marco Scandella back for Game 5.

Colorado is 4-0 on the road in the playoffs and leads the NHL with an average of 5.75 goals per game on the road in the postseason. With that track record, it is not a surprise that the Avalanche vs Blues odds favor visiting Colorado, as the Avalanche have -170 odds to close it out. The total is at 6 1/2 although those looking at NHL betting trends and expecting back-to-back games to hit seven goals might be asking too much.

Although Game 7 is in Denver, Colorado figures to approach this game as if its season is on the line because the pressure to finish things off in a winner-take-all Game 7 would be immense.

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