Avalanche 2, Blues 1

Nazem Kadri scored a buzzer-beating power-play goal to give Colorado a comeback victory over defending Stanley Cup champion St. Louis in Western Conference round-robin play Sunday night.

Kadri's shot crossed the goal line with 0.1 seconds on the clock. The NHL reviewed the play for several minutes before calling it a good goal.

"I knew there wasn’t much time left," Kadri said. “I didn’t hear a buzzer. I tried to stay on top of the puck, and luckily it worked out.”

Colorado took an early lead in the seeding race among the top four teams in the West. The Avalanche, Blues, Vegas Golden Knights and Dallas Stars have byes into the traditional first round of the NHL playoffs and will each face the winner of a best-of-five qualifying round series.

The frenzied finish included St. Louis captain Alex Pietrangelo going off slowly after taking a shot off the side of his right knee, teammate Alex Steen taking a penalty and the Avalanche putting goaltender Jordan Binnington and the Blues penalty kill under siege and got even crazier with Kadri's goal.

“At 0.1 it’s on the line and then at 0 it’s in the net,” said Blues forward David Perron, who scored on the power play in the first period. “I’m sure it’s as close a goal as you’ll ever see.”

The Blues wasted a 36-save performance from Binnington, who was as sharp as he was during the 2019 playoffs. He made 16 saves in the first period.

“We relied on Binner a little too much, especially off that start where we were just kind of feeling it out,” Blues center Ryan O’Reilly said. “We need to respond a lot quicker.”

David Perron scored a power-play goal for the Blues in the first period, and Ryan Graves tied it for the Avalanche in the third. Sandwiched in between was a penalty-filled second period in which Colorado captain Gabriel Landeskog boarded Zach Sanford — a two-minute minor penalty that may warrant a look from the league's department of player safety.

Goaltender Philipp Grubauer stopped 31 of the 32 shots he faced, and the Avalanche carried over their domination of the Blues from the shortened regular season.

“Division rival, great team, so we’re happy to get the win,” Kadri said. “That’s as close to a regular playoff game as you can get. That’s as good a preparation as you can get going forward.”

Defenseman Vince Dunn was a surprise inclusion in the Blues' lineup, making Robert Bortuzzo a healthy scratch.

Colorado's Andre Burakovsky stayed in the game after taking a stick to the face in the second period.

Coyotes 4, Predators 3

Oliver Ekman-Larsson scored the first of Arizona’s three first-period goals, a healthy Phil Kessel had two assists and the Coyotes held on to beat Nashville to open their Stanley Cup qualifier series.

The Coyotes made the most of their first postseason appearance since 2012, scoring three goals in the opening period on their way to building a 4-1 lead.

The Predators rallied behind two goals by Filip Forsberg, the second midway through the third period, to cut Arizona’s lead to 4-3.

Darcy Kuemper, who stopped 40 shots, held off Nashville’s late push and the Coyotes snatched momentum heading into Game 2 of the best-of-five series on Tuesday.

Christian Dvorak, Clayton Keller and Michael Grabner also scored for Arizona.

Ryan Ellis also scored for Nashville, and Juuse Saros stopped 33 shots.

Nashville was sixth in the Western Conference when the season was halted because of the coronavirus pandemic. The Coyotes were beneficiaries of the new playoff format for the restart, earning a spot in the qualifier after ending the regular season 11th in the West.

Wild 3, Canucks 0

Jared Spurgeon scored twice, and Alex Stalock stopped 28 shots to get his first career postseason win, leading Minnesota in a win over Vancouver in Game 1 of their qualifying series.

Kevin Fiala also scored — one of Minnesota's two power-play goals. Eric Staal had two assists and Spurgeon sealed the win with an empty-netter in the final minute.

Jacob Markstrom, making his first career postseason start, also finished with 28 saves for Vancouver.

Game 2 of the best-of-five series is Tuesday.

Minnesota didn’t give up the middle lane to the Canucks and allowed few clean entries over the Wild’s blue-line.

The Canucks mustered just four shots on goal in the third period and none on a late power play.