The Edmonton Oilers regular season ended with a 5-1 loss to the Colorado Avalanche, Thursday night in Denver.
The Oilers held Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Zach Hyman, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Evan Bouchard, and Mattias Ekholm out of the lineup. Evander Kane missed his third straight game with a minor injury.
It took the Avs only 1:19 to grab the lead on a goal by Valeri Nichushkin. Mikko Rantanen sniped his 42nd of the season, Nichushkin scored on the power play, and Andrew Cogliano deflected a shot past Stuart Skinner to make it 4-0 before the game was eight minutes old. Dylan Holloway put the Oilers on the board with a power play tip for his sixth of the season.
Skinner stopped nine of 13 shots in the first period and was replaced by Calvin Pickard to start the second. Zach Parise made it 5-1 Avs with 8:00 to go in the second.
The third period was scoreless.
The Oilers finish the season with a record of 49-27-6.