Have to admit it was only a couple of weeks ago when I thought the Avalanche were going to fall short of making the playoffs.

Now? Well, I can't afford to bet my house on the possibility, but they're in pretty good shape after winning Tuesday in Minnesota, no easy feat the way the Wild have played at home this season. They won the last three games against the Wild by a cumulative 19-4.

Check out how Brian Murphy of the St. Paul Pioneer Press began his postgame column: "Look at it this way: The Wild do not have the Avalanche to kick them around anymore after Colorado stole their lunch money and swirled their scowling faces in the toilet again."

Ouch.

The fact the Avalanche have gone 6-1-4 without Erik Johnson -- 5-0-3 since a 5-1 loss in Calgary on Feb. 24 -- is impressive.

They're 6-2-4 since Jonathan Bernier got hurt the first time, and it looks like he could be returning fairly soon, which will decrease what has been a heavy workload for Semyon Varlamov. He's played in 14 consecutive games, 12 of them starts.

Beating the Wild for the third consecutive time was significant, and getting two points Thursday in St. Louis would really be huge. The Blues, as coach Jared Bednar pointed out, are one of the teams that has had the Avalanche's number recently, and knocking them off in regulation would shove them five points behind.

"We know every night we are talking about how big this game is and we are going to go into the next game talking about how big that one is, and they just keep getting bigger and bigger here at the end of the season," Bednar told reporters. "To be able to carve out points, especially on the road, I think is real important. And our guys are coming together as a group, and we like what we are seeing, so hopefully we keep this thing rolling."

The Avalanche moved into the first wild card playoff spot in the Western Conference with the win against the Wild combined with Dallas' 4-2 loss in Montreal. The Avalanche and Dallas each have 82 points, but the Avalanche have played one fewer game and have more regulation/overtime wins (36-34).

The Stars could move ahead Wednesday when they play in Toronto, but they also will have played two more games.

"It's not easy, especially in our (Central) division, playing against teams that you need points against every night," said Nathan MacKinnon, who scored his 33rd goal Tuesday and is fourth in NHL scoring with 82 points. "We've done a good job lately and hopefully we can keep it going in these last 13 games."

The Avalanche have lost four in a row -- three this season -- and nine of the past 10 to St. Louis. The teams meet two more times this season, Thursday and in the regular-season finale April 7 at the Pepsi Center.

"We have to get all the points as we can, it doesn't matter if they're home or on the road," captain Gabriel Landeskog said. "Now we're going into another challenging building in St. Louis. It'll be a fun test. You know what your schedule looks like moving forward, but it has to be one game at a time.

"For us, we've talked about it for weeks, it's playoff hockey every time we go on the ice. We've done a good job of putting ourselves in position coming down the stretch. Now it's a matter of keep climbing."



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