Blues fall in regular-season finale

DENVER -- Colorado's ninth division title was easily its most difficult.

Milan Hejduk scored his 50th goal of the season, and Peter Forsberg had a goal and two assists as the Avalanche beat the St. Louis Blues 5-2 Sunday for a record ninth consecutive division title.

Colorado trailed Vancouver by 13 points after a 4-2 to loss to Detroit on Jan. 16, but stormed back with 25 wins in its final 37 games.

The Avalanche open the playoffs at home Thursday against Minnesota, with Game 2 on Saturday.

"We did what we had to do," Avalanche coach Tony Granato said. "If you look back at the last 50 games and look at what we were able to do to end up with 105 points, that is one heck of a season."

Colorado moved a point ahead of Vancouver in the Northwest Division by earning a point in its 17th straight home game (14-0-2-1), then rushed to the locker room to watch Vancouver and Los Angeles on television.

The Avalanche secured the title after the Kings beat the Canucks 2-0, breaking a tie with the 1975-82 Montreal Canadiens, who eight straight Adams Division crowns.

"We put pressure on them (Vancouver) and sometimes in this league things happen," said Colorado goalie Patrick Roy, who is unbeaten in 26 of his past 30 starts after stopping 25 shots. "We had a good break and L.A. played well and gave us that break."

St. Louis players were also found watching the Canucks and Kings after ending the season winless in their final five games (0-3-2). The Blues will face Vancouver in the first round.

"We're looking to get to this stage over the past week here," Blues coach Joel Quenneville said. "All of a sudden we have to play with emotion, we've got to have an edge to our game. We're better when we play like that and tonight we were looking for an easy game early in the game."

Hejduk became the fourth player -- eighth overall -- in team history to reach 50 goals. He scored with 5:38 left in the game, becoming the first Avalanche player to lead the league in goals. He scored on a rebound after Forsberg kicked a pass to Alex Tanguay.

Hejduk kept Colorado's hopes for a ninth title alive Friday night against Anaheim with a goal with 10 seconds left in overtime of a 4-3 victory.

"You get pumped when you get that close to 50 goals. It is a special goal and I'm glad I made it," said Hejduk, who extended his goals streak to five games and added two assists.

Forsberg, who had an empty-net goal with 55 seconds left, closed the season with 11 goals and 37 assists the final 28 games to become the first player in team history to win the league scoring title.

He finished with 106 points, two ahead of Vancouver's Markus Naslund.

St. Louis already had fifth place in the Western Conference locked up and rested several of its top players.

Goalie Chris Osgood, forwards Ryan Johnson, Scott Mellanby and Shjon Podein, and defensemen Al MacInnis and Matt Walker didn't play as the Blues prepare for the start of the playoffs on Wednesday.

Blues rookie Eric Sejna scored in his first NHL game. Sejna, the NCAA's leading scorer this season with nearby Colorado College, signed with the Blues early Sunday.

"I was a little bit nervous," said Sejna, a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award, given to college hockey's top player. "Once I was there, I just tried to play the game and it felt great."