Colorado Avalanche vs. St. Louis Blues NHL Picks, Odds, Predictions 5/21/2021

The Colorado Avalanche and the St. Louis Blues meet in game three of their Stanley Cup First Round matchup in NHL action from the Enterprise Center on Friday night.

The Colorado Avalanche will look to take a 3-0 stranglehold on the series after going up 2-0 with a 6-3 win over the Blues last time out. Joonas Donskoi gave Colorado the lead just 35 second into the game and Nathan MacKinnon doubled the lead with under two minutes to go in the opening period. Donskoi pushed the lead to 3-0 with his second goal of the game just over three minutes into the second period but Sammy Blais would pull the goal back near the end of the second.

Brayden Schenn cut the deficit to 3-2 just after the midway point of the third but Nathan MacKinnon would restore the two goal cushion with 4:35 to play. Mike Hoffman pulled St. Louis back to 4-3 just 15 later, but Brandon Saad would make it 5-3 on an empty net with just over two minutes to go and MacKinnon would complete his hat trick on an empty net with 12 seconds to go, sealing the 6-3 win for the Avs and the 2-0 series lead.

Philipp Grubaiuer got the win in goal for Colorado after stopping 32 of 35 shots faced in the winning effort while Jordan Binnington took the loss between the pipes for St. Louis after allowing four goals on 33 shots in the defeat.

Colorado is 38-14 in their last 52 games overall and 43-20 in their last 63 games following a win while the over is 10-2 in their last 12 playoff games as a favorite. St. Louis is 1-5 in their last 6 games as an underdog and 5-1 in their last 6 home games while the over is 13-6-2 in their last 21 games as a home underdog. The over is 3-1-1 in the last 5 meetings between these two teams.

The Avalanche have been able to get pretty much whatever they’ve wanted offensively this series, but they’ve also given up their fair share of markers as well and I think another high-scoring affair is on the cards here so give me the over in this spot.