Jonathan Bernier gets the start in place of injured
Semyon Varlamov when the Avalanche take on Columbus at the Pepsi Center on Thursday.
Here are the
GAME NOTES.
Varlamov has a lower-body injury and also is expected to miss Saturday's game against Mnnesota, the homestand finale and last game before the Avalanche's NHL bye week.
Andrew Hammond will be the backup. He was recalled Wednesday from Belleville of the AHL, where he's been on loan since the Avalanche's Nov. 5 trade of
Matt Duchene to Ottawa.
The Avalanche are seeking their fourth consecutive win, which would be a season high. They have gone 8-3-1 since losing the first four games in December. They are three points out of the second wild card playoff position in the West with a couple of games in hand.
"You can look at a handful teams around the league that started a rebuild process, got young and started to take steps," coach
Jared Bednar said. "There's a couple different groups of teams that we look at and say, 'You know, we want to make sure our team is progressing too.'
"We have had a good start to the season, there's a lot of season left. We've only begun the work here. It's important for us to continue to grow throughout the season and beyond. Our goal is to be a contending team."
The lineup:
FORWARDS
Gabriel Landeskog -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Mikko Rantanen
A.J. Greer -- Alexander Kerfoot -- Nail Yakupov
Matt Nieto -- Carl Soderberg -- Blake Comeau
Colin Wilson -- Tyson Jost -- Gabriel Bourque
DEFENSE
Nikita Zadorov -- Erik Johnson
Patrik Nemeth -- Mark Barberio
Samuel Girard -- Anton Lindholm
GOALIES
Jonathan Bernier
Andrew Hammond
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