DENVER — Valeri Nichushkin scored twice, Nathan MacKinnon added two assists to break the franchise’s single-season points mark and the Colorado Avalanche cruised into the playoffs behind a 5-1 win over the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday night.

MacKinnon wrapped up the regular season with 140 points (51 goals, 89 assists) to top Peter Stastny’s franchise record of 139 set in 1981-82 when the club was in Quebec.

The speedy MacKinnon couldn’t catch Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov in the race for the Art Ross Trophy, which goes to the leading points scorer. Kucherov wound up with 144 points.

Still, MacKinnon made a compelling case for the Hart Trophy as the league’s MVP. Then again, so have Kucherov, Auston Matthews and Connor McDavid.

“I don’t think one guy is more deserving [than] another guy,” MacKinnon said. “It’s out of my hands, and I can’t control people who vote for me or don’t like me or like me. It’s all good either way.”

Mikko Rantanen, Josh Manson and Zach Parise also scored to help the Avalanche snap a two-game slide. Colorado jumped out to a 4-0 lead midway through the first period and never looked back in a game in which the Oilers rested several of their starters, including McDavid.

“It’s a tough game to play against a depleted lineup. It’s always exciting to play the best players in the league, the best player in the world over there,” MacKinnon said in reference to McDavid. “But I get it. They have nothing to play for right now. They don’t want to get hurt.”

Justus Annunen made 25 saves for the Avalanche, who finished with a league-best 31 home wins. Colorado opens the playoffs at Winnipeg on Sunday.

“I like where we’re at,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “I think guys mentally are in a good spot.”

Dylan Holloway had a power-play goal for Edmonton. The Oilers will host Los Angeles in the first round starting Monday after the Kings won in OT over Chicago and Vegas lost to Anaheim in games later Thursday.

Missing from the Edmonton lineup in addition to McDavid were Mattias Ekholm, Zach Hyman, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Leon Draisaitl, Evan Bouchard and Evander Kane. That’s nearly 70% of the team’s points production this season.

“I thought the first half of that first period we’re just standing around watching them and they were skating around us, making plays,” Oilers forward Corey Perry said. “After that, it’s all about work and we battled hard. The way we started, it just wasn’t there.

“They’re a great team. They’re in playoff mode and they came out hard.”

The Avalanche went with a full cast, and Oilers goaltender Stuart Skinner was under early pressure, surrendering four goals on 13 shots in the first period. Calvin Pickard took over after the first intermission and stopped 13 shots.

MacKinnon joined Kucherov in the 140-point club this season. It marks the seventh season in NHL history in which multiple players have reached that mark. The last time was Jaromir Jagr and Mario Lemieux in 1995-96, according to NHL Stats.

Avalanche forward Jonathan Drouin appeared to be shaken up late in the second and wasn’t on the bench to start the third period. He’s turned in a career year with 56 points.

Bednar had no update after the game.

The players from the Denver Pioneers were in attendance and received a loud ovation from the crowd in the first period. The team captured its record 10th NCAA national hockey title last weekend.

With one season left on his 12-year, $104.4 million contract, Pittsburgh Penguins star Sidney Crosby said he plans to approach the team in the offseason about a contract extension.

Crosby, who turns 37 on Aug. 7, has played 19 seasons with the Penguins after they selected him No. 1 overall in the 2005 draft.

“Obviously, I’m going to talk to [general manager Kyle Dubas] and have a conversation with him,” the two-time Hart Trophy winner and eight-time All-Star told reporters Thursday. “We’ll see. I think it’s just something that I’ll have conversations with him about.”

Crosby, who posted 94 points (42 goals, 52 assists) in 82 games this season, sparked the Penguins’ late playoff push that came up just short. The future Hall of Famer shows no signs of slowing down, as he tied Wayne Gretzky with his 19th season of averaging a point per game.

“It’s disappointing, especially with the way we finished the year. We were playing good hockey,” Crosby said. “You look, when you miss by a margin that we’ve had the last couple years, there’s so many games that you look at plays and things you want to redo. It’s a fine line. Unfortunately, we’ve been on the wrong side of that the last couple years.”

Under Crosby’s leadership, the Penguins have won three Stanley Cups (2009, 2016, 2017) while he’s compiled 1,596 points (592 goals, 1,004 assists) in 1,272 games. Only Mario Lemieux (1,723) has more points in Penguins history.

Among the many other accolades of his legendary career, Crosby has won both the Rocket Richard Trophy and Conn Smythe Trophy twice. He also has been the Ted Lindsay Award recipient three times and played in six All-Star Games.

KLADNO, Czech Republic — Jaromir Jagr returned to action Thursday for the first time since turning 52 and immediately scored as he surpassed legend Gordie Howe to become the oldest player taking regular shifts in professional ice hockey.

Howe, known as “Mr. Hockey,” was 52 years, 11 days old when played his final NHL game in 1980. The Canadian later played a single shift with the Detroit Vipers in the International Hockey League in 1997 at the age of 69. Howe died in 2016.

Jagr hadn’t played since Feb. 10 — five days before he turned 52 — and rejoined his Kladno Knights, a top-division team from his Czech Republic hometown, in the second game of a playoff relegation series against Vsetin.

The former NHL great in his first shift was unmarked when he collected the puck in front of goal and scored to give Kladno a 1-0 lead 1:59 into the game.

It was Jagr’s 16th game in his 36th professional season. He also also added an assist.

Kladno won the game 7-2 to take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.

During his break, Jagr traveled to Pittsburgh where the Penguins retired his iconic No. 68 on Feb 18.

Jagr played 11 seasons with the Penguins, winning Stanley Cup titles in 1991 and 1992.

Jagr made his debut for Kladno as a teenager and returned to the club — which he now owns — in 2018 after the Calgary Flames released the NHL’s second all-time leading point-scorer.

It’s not clear when he might retire.