Avalanche clinch top West

Colorado wrapped up the top seed in the Western Conference on April 7 with a 3-1 win in St. Louis, so the road to the Stanley Cup Final now runs through Ball Arena for any West team that wants out. (nhl.com) That clinch came with the Central Division too, and Colorado did it with 112 points through 77 games, eight clear of Dallas at 104 when the standings updated on April 8. (nhl.com) The gap tells you what kind of season this was: Colorado had 290 goals scored and only 197 allowed, a plus-93 differential that was nearly double Dallas’s plus-48. (nhl.com) They also did it everywhere, not just at home. The Avalanche were 24-9-5 in Denver and 27-7-5 on the road, which is the kind of split contenders usually dream about and rarely get. (nhl.com) The reward is simple and huge at the same time. Home ice means Colorado opens every Western Conference series in its own building and gets a Game 7 there too if a series goes the distance. (nhl.com) This is the part that makes the story feel bigger than one hockey team. On the same April 8 standings pages, the Denver Nuggets were sitting third in the National Basketball Association Western Conference at 52-28, with the playoffs starting April 18. (nba.com) The Denver Broncos are part of that run too, even though their season is over. They went 14-3 in 2025 after ending an eight-season playoff drought the year before, which means three of Denver’s biggest teams have all been in serious contention within about 15 months. (espn.com) (nfl.com) Even the city’s weaker spots underline the contrast. The Colorado Rockies were 6-6 on April 10, which is respectable but nowhere near the kind of dominance the Avalanche showed by locking up the West before the regular season even ended. (mlb.com) So this clinch is not just a seed next to Colorado’s name. It is a team that spent six months turning the Western Conference into a chase, then finished the job early enough to make the playoffs look like they start on its terms. (nhl.com)