Defending champion Avalanche enter Stanley Cup playoffs on a roll

The Colorado Avalanche are peaking at the right time, giving the defending Stanley Cup champions a shot to repeat.

"Once you taste it once, it's something you want again," Avs defenceman Bowen Byram said.

It certainly won't be easy to make it through the talented and tough teams in the Western Conference playoffs to reach the Stanley Cup final, where it's possible the record-breaking Boston Bruins will be waiting.

Colorado closed the regular season with a 4-3 win at Nashville on Friday night, when Nathan MacKinnon scored his third goal of the game with 1:42 remaining. The Avs clinched the Central Division title for a third straight year and set up a first-round matchup with the Seattle Kraken.

The Avs went 31-7-4 over the last three months and finished with a franchise-record 29 wins on the road, including 11 straight since losing at Dallas on March 4.

"I think in January, we were sixth in our division," forward Mikko Rantanen said. "The way we played the second half of the year, fought back, and found a way to get home ice, that's huge for our club."

WATCH | Rantanen sets Avs record with 55th goal of season:

Colorado will begin its defence Tuesday night at home against the wild-card Kraken, who won 19 more games than they did last year in their debut season.

The defending champions were not as dominant this season as last, when they won a franchise-record 56 games in the regular season before going 16-4 in the playoffs with two sweeps.

The Avs lost some scoring punch in the off-season when Nazem Kadri and Andre Burakovsky cashed in on their value in the market and signed with Calgary and Seattle, respectively.

Injuries then led to Colorado setting a franchise record for players used in a season. Captain Gabriel