Well back and way out of the playoff race, Colorado is making things difficult for teams in or contending for a playoff spot.

Because if they don’t play inspired hockey, they run the risk of incurring the wrath of veteran goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere again.

Jamie McGinn scored twice, Giguere stopped 29 shots and the Avalanche prevented the St. Louis Blues from wrapping up a playoff spot with a 5-3 win on Sunday night.

Colorado is 3-0-2 against teams jockeying for postseason position since Giguere recently boiled over and bristled about his team’s lackluster play. They definitely received his message.

“All it means is we can play against anyone in this league if we put our minds to it,” Giguere said. “If we skate, play the system the way it’s supposed to be and we’re on the same page, then we can compete against any team in this league. That’s something we should be excited about, something we should build on.”

Cody McLeod, Matt Duchene and Chuck Kobasew also scored for the Avalanche, who chased Brian Elliott from the game late in the second period. It was Colorado’s eighth straight win over the Blues at Pepsi Center.

David Backes, Jaden Schwartz and Kevin Shattenkirk had goals for St. Louis, which could have secured a postseason berth with a win over a Colorado team that’s last in the Western Conference.

After Elliott, one of the top goaltenders this month, gave up a fourth goal, the Blues pulled him in favor of Jake Allen. He allowed Kobasew’s third-period goal that gave Colorado a 5-3 advantage.

Giguere made the lead hold up down the stretch.

Elliott resembled the Elliott of three months ago, the goaltender scuffling in net, and not the one with an 8-1 mark in April along with a 1.01 goals-allowed average entering the game. He had three straight road shutouts before McGinn broke the scoreless streak midway through the opening period.

“We just didn’t play as good as a team,” Elliott said. “That’s not how we want to play. Obviously, it’s frustrating not getting the win and clinching a playoff spot like we had a chance to do tonight. That’s what’s frustrating.”

The Blues play the Avs again in two days.

“You can’t dwell on this too much, you have to take (the loss) for what it is and learn from it,” Elliott said. “This is not the time of year to have a team effort like that. From the goalie out, we have to be better.”

St. Louis was uncharacteristically careless with the puck, committing several turnovers that led to goals. The Mile High City hasn’t been particularly kind to the Blues, who’ve not won in Denver since April 12, 2009. Coach Ken Hitchcock said part of the reason is that his team tries to play a fast-paced tempo with the Avs, instead of their own game.

Colorado had the Blues in chase mode, especially after building a 4-2 lead after two periods. Giguere bottled up the Blues, but Shattenkirk made things interesting by scoring on a wrist shot from the blue line to make it 4-3 midway through the third.

Kobasew ended the drama by banking in a shot off Allen nearly 4 minutes later.

“Wasn’t one of our better games,” Hitchcock said.

The Avalanche’s recently inspired play has something to do with Giguere’s motivational rant — and even more to do with plain, old pride.

“When you go on a downward spiral like we did there for a while, it’s tough to get out of,” Duchene said. “You get in a terrible mindset that’s really hard to overcome.

“A little while ago, we accepted our fate and we started playing good hockey and knocking off good teams. It’s good to go into next season like this. We need to continue to press and play well.”

McGinn gave Colorado a 1-0 lead in the first period when his left skate deflected a shot past Elliott. The officials quickly reviewed the goal and upheld the ruling. It was the first road goal Elliott allowed in more than 200 minutes.

Backes tied the game when he coasted up the middle and lifted a shot by Giguere. But McLeod put Colorado back on top just before the end of the period, tipping a shot past Elliott.

These days, that hasn’t been an easy task.

Elliott has been a completely different goaltender since his return from a one-game stint in the minors late last month. Before he went down to the Peoria Rivermen of the American Hockey League, he was hardly seeing any playing time and when he got into goal he wasn’t effective, going 3-6-1 with a 3.65 goals-against average.

But Elliott figured some things out and has been stonewalling opponents all month. His eight wins are the second-most by a Blues goaltender in April, one behind Brent Johnson (2001-02).

“Brian got rid of the anxiety of getting ready for a game,” Hitchcock explained after the morning skate. “He’s resurrected the season for us. He’s really been the story here in the month of April.”

Elliott’s turnaround also has coincided with the arrival of defenseman Jay Bouwmeester, who was acquired from Calgary on April 1.

For Bouwmeester, the change of scenery has been quite pleasant, considering he went from a scuffling Flames team to a squad that could soon be headed to the Stanley Cup playoffs.

“It’s been fun. I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t,” Bouwmeester said.

Game notes

McGinn also had an assist, giving him his second three-point game of the season. … McLeod has scored four times in his last four games. … Backes had an assist to go with his sixth goal of the season.

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“Sure. I think we put much more time in this year than we — for example, like last year, when we played the Super Bowl, it was our first game without him in two years,” Brady said during his weekly appearance on the “Dennis and Callahan Show” on Boston sports radio station WEEI. “Not that that’s any excuse because there are no excuses, but there’s an uncertainty of how guys are going to play and step in. Well we know now, we know the types of packages we’ll use and what we’ll do and the different ways we’ll try to find some weakness in the defense based on our groups and so forth.”

It was the same arm that Gronkowski broke Nov. 18 against the Indianapolis Colts. Gronkowski missed five games because of the original injury but played in New England’s regular-season finale against the Miami Dolphins.

Gronkowski, who had a team-leading 11 touchdown catches this season, will require a second surgery on his arm, sources told ESPN.

Gronkowski, who had the forearm heavily wrapped, appeared to suffer the injury while attempting to make a catch in the first quarter. The two-time Pro Bowler returned to the Patriots’ sideline early in the second half but eventually departed with members of the team’s medical staff and did not return to New England’s 41-28 victory over the Texans.

Patriots coach Bill Belichick credited both Shane Vereen and Michael Hoomanawanui for stepping up Sunday to fill Gronkowski’s absence.

“It’s disappointing to not have Rob available, but I thought that Shane and Hooman both did a great job of stepping in to the game yesterday,” he said.

When asked if Gronkowski was 100 percent entering the game, Belichick reiterated what he said Sunday.

“I covered that yesterday. He was cleared medically,” he said. When pressed for more information, he adamantly responded, “I don’t have anything to add to it.”

Brady added that offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels’ ability to excel when the team has had to adjust this season gives him confidence.

“That’s what Josh does better than anybody else that I’ve been around; his ability to adjust like he’s done all season,” he said. “That’s just the way it’s gone. I think we’ve played a bunch of games now, we’ve never really been fully healthy, and obviously now won’t be.

“But you know what? We’ve still got a very good team and there’s different guys that step up and make those big time plays, whether it’s Wes [Welker] or Brandon [Lloyd] or Deion [Branch] or Shane or Rid [Stevan Ridley] or Woody [Danny Woodhead], Aaron Hernandez had another big game. They’ve got to stop all of us, and that’s what we’ve got to continue to do this week.”

Woodhead also was injured against Houston when he hurt his thumb carrying the ball on the Patriots’ first offensive play. The club provided no update on his condition Sunday but Belichick said Monday that the running back could have re-entered the game if he was needed.

“Now that we are into a new week, we will re-address the whole situation and try to get a good feel of what he would and wouldn’t be available to do, and how functional he would be doing it,” Belichick said. “So I would say that’s something we’ll have to look at during the week.

“Assuming the doctors clear him to play, which is a medical decision, then the next situation would be from a football decision, what can he do and how well can he do it? & That would all be determined at a later point in time.”

Brady and his team will now focus their attention on the AFC Championship Game and the Baltimore Ravens, a team they lost to back in Week 3. Brady said he’ll use that tape to study this week, while also noting the familiarity between the two teams, who also met in last season’s AFC title game.

“We learn from the last game, but like I said last week, it’s just more of a few matchups and so forth,” Brady said. “I think you get a feel for some coverages, but we’ve played them enough where we know the players, we know their strengths, we’ll just work hard to see what they’ve done since our game. There’s a lot of tape to be watched, but they’re playing their best football right now.

“The way their offense played [against the Broncos on Saturday], I did see a few of those Torrey Smith catches and those were incredible. He had a great game against us and he had a great game on Saturday. They’ve got a very good offense, very good defense, they’ve got some Pro Bowl special teams guys, they’ve got a great team and they’re very well coached. That’s why they’re in the same position that they were last year. I feel the same way about us. I feel we’ve got the best coaching, we’ve got a lot of mentally tough players, physically tough players that are going to be facing our toughest challenge of the year. I know we’ll be ready for it when we kickoff next week.”

Before the Patriots had even punched their ticket to the AFC title game, Ravens linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo fueled the anticipation for this week’s game with some inflammatory remarks on Twitter about the Patriots’ offense, referring to the Patriots’ up-tempo attack as a “gimmick.”

Ayanbadejo later apologized for his comments in a Monday tweet.

Asked whether his team would once again push the tempo against the Ravens next week, Brady replied. “We’re going to play the style that we’ve played all year. I don’t know what we are going to do. I just woke up this morning.”

Brady made it clear that he didn’t need the remarks for motivation, instead focusing on the fact that his team is one win away from a return to the Super Bowl.

“That’s the only motivation we need,” he said. “That’s the ultimate motivation.”

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