St. Louis Blues at Colorado Avalanche Game 5 Betting Preview
The Colorado Avalanche are back at home and big favorites as they try to eliminate the St. Louis Blues on Wednesday night. The Avs are up 3-1 after two big wins on the road and are now -250 favorites back at Ball Arena, where they had just five regulation losses during the regular season.
The Blues are down after dropping two games on their own ice, but they should have some motivation knowing they were able to get a 4-1 victory in Colorado in Game 2.
St. Louis suffers a big blow with goaltender Jordan Binnington (knee) out the rest of the playoffs, and that is one of the big reasons the Avalanche are -250 favorites in this elimination game.
Blues Down a Bit
It’s got to be a hard emotional pill to swallow for St. Louis to have stolen home-ice advantage with a Game 2 win only to give it right back and then some in losing Games 3 and 4 at home. Not only that, they weren’t particularly close as Colorado won 5-2 and 6-2.
Now St. Louis tries to extend the series and do so behind backup goaltender Ville Husso. The second-year player has appeared in 40 games this year, but he’s been battered lately, allowing 18 goals in his last four appearances.
The Game 5 betting total is 6.5, and if the Blues are going to pull off the upset at +220, they’re likely going to need 4-5 goals or more. That means another big game from David Perron is on order, as he has four goals in the last three games.
Colorado Ready to Finish Things
Even though the Avalanche have been a Stanley Cup favorite for a few years now, the team still hasn’t gotten to even the Conference Finals since 2002. Colorado has lost in the first or second round in four straight seasons, which is why a win on Wednesday on their own ice would be especially rewarding.
Colorado is playing like a team that wants to end this series ASAP, beating St. Louis by a margin of 11-5 over the last two games. Nazem Kadri had a hat trick on Monday night, picking up some of the slack of Nathan Mackinnon going goalless this series (although he does have three assists).
Blues/Avalanche Betting Prediction
Some bad news for the Blues is that it looks like Gabriel Landeskog and Mikko Rantanen are also heating up, as they’ve combined for three goals and three assists in the last three games.
Throw in the fact that Colorado is at home but also wary after dropping Game 2 on their own ice, and it would be hard to imagine this one getting away from the Avalanche.
Husso has given up nine goals on 59 shots in the last two games, and that was playing in front of his own crowd. The Colorado fans are going to be bloodthirsty on Wednesday night as they can taste a trip to the conference finals for the first time in 20 years.
Pick: Avalanche -1.5
