DENVER – No one had scored since the second-to-last minute of the first period, and overtime threatened.

Cale Makar took care of it. His point shot made its way through several limbs and sailed past goaltender Ville Husso with 41 seconds left in regulation to give the Colorado Avalanche a 2-1 win Saturday and a series sweep of the St. Louis Blues.

Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen had waving sticks in front but the puck didn’t immediately appear to go off either one.

“We’ve been talking about just getting shots through all night,” Makar said.

“Luckily I was just able to get around the guy.”

The Avalanche as a whole have handled everything thrown at them in the past 14 games, securing at least one standings point in all of them. A hungry Blues team played them closely but a pair of physical, one-goal wins was good practice, Makar said.

“We need these tight games to prepare us for what we’re hopefully going to go through in the playoffs,” Makar said.

“It definitely felt like a playoff game and I think we love that type of atmosphere and playing this type of game.”

Philipp Grubauer made 27 saves and was everywhere during the third period, keeping the Blues from sneaking off with the win the way the Avalanche went on to do it.

The previous three Avalanche goals in the series came from MacKinnon. Off the rush in Saturday’s first period, MacKinnon elevated the puck over the outstretched stick of defenseman Torey Krug and Husso’s shoulder to open the scoring.

Liam O’Brien and Robert Bortuzzo exchanged blows during the second period. It went down in front of the penalty boxes as the Blues’ Jaden Schwartz was headed that direction for goaltender interference. Forward O’Brien, who made his Avalanche debut Friday, headed to the locker room before returning to wait out the rest of his five-minute punishment.

Colorado had 1:13 of 5-on-3 time to take the lead again but the Blues sent it chasing the puck down the ice.

St. Louis had tied it up out of a mess in front of Grubauer. With three bodies on the ice in and around the crease, former Colorado center Ryan O’Reilly was credited with poking the puck in.

“I think it was a tight-checking game. There wasn’t a lot of room to move,” coach Jared Bednar said. “We haven’t played a game like that in a little bit, but I thought our guys handled it well.”

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