from Ed Willes of the Vancouver Province,

Wednesday the Avalanche became one of three teams to punch their ticket to the second round of the Stanley Cup tournament with a demolition of the Arizona Coyotes. In a later game, Philadelphia also had a chance to knock out Montreal.

The Avs’ 7-1 victory gave them a convincing five-game series win over the hapless Coyotes. Over the life of the series they outscored their opponent 22-8, including 14-2 over the final two games. In their Game 5 win they scored on back-to-back power plays in the first half of the first period, added a third on Nazem Kadri’s second goal of the game, then coasted to victory....

“There’s no question,” said Coyotes coach Rick Tocchet. “We were overmatched.”

The next question is who will be a match for the Avs?

“I most definitely think we’re ready to make that next step, no doubt,” said Colorado captain Gabriel Landeskog who’s now in, can it be?, his ninth year with the team. “We’ve grown together and we’ve been through the bad.

“We’ve seen the product we can put on the ice. When we do our job and work for one another, we can do some really good things.”

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