ST. LOUIS — Stage one of the Colorado Avalanche’s return to the NHL mountaintop is complete.

The Avs suffocated the St. Louis Blues Tuesday night, dominating at the defensive end and on the shot clock en route to a 3-1 win at the Enterprise Center. The victory clinches the Central Division title and secures the top seed in the Western Conference during the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

It is the 13th division title since the franchise moved to Denver. It also came eight years to the day since Jared Bednar and this core of Avs players defeated these Blues in Game No. 82 to secure their first playoff berth together at the end of the 2017-18 campaign.

Securing a division title has been a top priority for this club since Day One of training camp, particularly after last season ended with a crushing Game 7 loss in North Texas. Winning the Central means the Dallas Stars, who have been the second-best team in the NHL for much of this season, will have to play the Minnesota Wild, who spent part of this year as the third-best team and remain in the top-seven in the opening round.

Colorado’s first-round opponent remains to be determined, but the club that began the day in the second wild-card spot, the Los Angeles Kings, was in 20th place in the NHL standings — 17 points behind the Wild. The victory also moves the Avalanche to within one point earned or one point lost by the Carolina Hurricanes to clinch the Presidents’ Trophy and home-ice advantage throughout the postseason.

The Avs have been the standard-setter for the NHL this entire season. Colorado has been alone in first place in the NHL standings since Dec. 1, and had one of the best starts to a season in league history when the Avs went 31-2-7 in their first 40 contests.

That version of the Avs hasn’t shown up quite as consistently in the second half, at times in part because of injuries, but it did Tuesday night on the banks of the Mississippi River.

Valeri Nichushkin, returning from a one-game injury absence, scored twice for the Avs. Scott Wedgewood had another night with long stretches of light work, but made 18 saves and is now 12-5-2 in 2006. Colorado is 9-9-0 since Jan. 1 when Wedgewood is not the goalie of record.

Colorado had arguably its most dominant period of the season to begin this contest. The Avs opened a 2-0 lead that could have been much worse. They outshot the Blues 17-2, and the shot attempts were 33-7. Per Natural Stat Trick, Colorado generated more than 96% of the expected goals in the opening 20 minutes.

Nichushkin had the first one, a tip-in of a Devon Toews shot at 16:11. Martin Necas had the second with 28 seconds left in the period.

It was Necas’ 37th goal of the year. Nathan MacKinnon had a great chance to score earlier in the shift before setting Necas up with an assist for point No. 123. That is the fourth-most in franchise history, behind his 140 two years ago and two seasons from Peter Stastny (124 in 1982-83 and 139 in 1981-82).

Nichushkin added his second of the night and 17th of the season 1:40 into the middle period while shorthanded. Brock Nelson set him up, cutting to the net, and Nichushkin put his stick between his legs for a highlight-reel goal.

Footnotes

Nazem Kadri left this game in the second period with an upper-body injury. He blocked a shot with his hand in his final shift. … While Nichushkin and Nicolas Roy returned to the lineup, Cale Makar did not play. Bednar said he will likely miss a few more games, but is still expected to return before the playoffs begin.

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