Avalanche sweep Predators to advance to second round

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The Colorado Avalanche are happy they got a bit of a challenge before sweeping the Nashville Predators.

They actually had to rally for the first time in the first round.

Valeri Nichushkin scored the tiebreaking goal with 7:58 left, and the Avalanche became the first team to advance to the second round Monday night beating the Predators 5-3 Monday night.

“We found a way,” Colorado center Nathan MacKinnon said. “That’s the key. You can’t always win when you have your best, you have to find ways when you’re not. Tonight was one of those cases. We just know with all the skill and talent we have that we were going to get one.”

The Avalanche now are in the Western Conference semifinals for a fourth straight season and second consecutive after sweeping their first-round opponent. They improved to 6-0 since the franchise relocated to Denver in best-of-seven series after winning the first three games with their fourth sweep in that span.

They now get to wait for either St. Louis or Minnesota.

“The big thing is now we can take a breath, get a couple days off for our guys, give them some rest and we’ll still get some real good practice time before we get ready for our next opponent,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said.

Andre Burakovsky and Cale Makar each had a goal and two assists for Colorado, and Devon Toews added a goal. MacKinnon sealed the victory with an empty-net goal on the man advantage with 55.9 seconds remaining.

Yakov Trenin scored twice for Nashville, which was swept for the first time in franchise history in its 15th playoff appearance. Filip Forsberg scored his first of the series giving Nashville its first lead this series at 3:58 of the third, and it lasted less than 5 minutes.

“The fact that