Jonathan Bernier will be in goal and forward Blake Comeau will return to the lineup Friday when the Avalanche play in Winnipeg.

This could be the final game they'll play without center Nathan MacKinnon, who didn't travel with the team and will miss his eighth game with an upper-body injury (likely a shoulder).

MacKinnon might play Sunday against Edmonton at the Pepsi Center. He is expected to practice Saturday after he took part in an optional practice Thursday while wearing a regular jersey; he had a non-contact jersey for previous on-ice sessions.

In the meantime, Comeau will be reunited with linemates Matt Nieto and Carl Soderberg after missing three games with a lower-body injury.

"I feel good," Comeau said. "It was a nice step to be able to take."

It looks like Nail Yakupov will be the scratched forward, along with defenseman Duncan Siemens.

Here are the GAME NOTES.

The Avalanche (31-21-4) have gone 4-3-0 without MacKinnon and can move into the West's second wild card playoff spot with a win against the Jets (33-15-9). The Avalanche are two points behind Minnesota but have more ROW (regulation and overtime wins), the first tiebreaker.

This is the final regular-season game between the Avalanche and Jets. Colorado won the first two games by 3-2 scores in overtime at home and lost 3-0 in Winnipeg on Feb. 3.

Bernier has a 4-0-3 career record against Winnipeg with a 2.25 goals-against average and .926 save percentage.

The Avalanche do need to get the power play going again; it's gone 1-for-20 in the past six games.

The Jets, who trail Central Division-leading Nashville by two points, have gone 4-2-1 in the first seven games of a -- check this out -- 10-game homestand. They are 21-5-2 overall at home, while the Avalanche are 11-14-3 on the road.

The Avalanche reassigned forward Rocco Grimaldi to San Antonio of the AHL.

The lineup:

FORWARDS
Gabriel Landeskog -- Alexander Kerfoot -- Colin Wilson
Tyson Jost -- J.T. Compher -- Mikko Rantanen
Matt Nieto -- Carl Soderberg -- Blake Comeau
A.J. Greer -- Dominic Toninato -- Gabriel Bourque

DEFENSE
Nikita Zadorov -- Erik Johnson
Patrik Nemeth -- Samuel Girard
Anton Lindholm -- Tyson Barrie

GOALIES
Jonathan Bernier
Semyon Varlamov



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