The Avalanche play Tampa Bay on Sunday to open a two-game homestand.
Here are the
GAME NOTES.
The Avalanche didn't have a morning skate, but
Calvin Pickard is expected to start after making 28 saves Friday when they ended a five-game losing streak and 11-game road losing streak with a 2-1 overtime win against Carolina.
Mikko Rantanen converted
Matt Duchene's pass with 36.4 seconds left for the win. Rantanen, who has four goals and three assists in the past eight games, is ninth among NHL rookies with 27 points (12 goals, 15 assists) in 51 games. Duchene has gone 13 games without a goal.
An Avalanche win Sunday would give them their fourth two-game winning streak, matching the season high. How bad is that?
"We're trying not to be a group that comes up with excuses,"
Tyson Barrie said. "We've obviously had our struggles this year, and now is not the time to start doing it. We just show up every day, and we know we still got fans watching and fans that really care about our team."
Ben Bishop will likely start in goal for the Lightning, who lost 4-3 in overtime Saturday at Dallas.
Andrei Vasilevskiy had 24 saves for Tampa Bay.
The Lightning are 3-0-2 in their past five games and 2-0-3 in their past five road games. They're 1-4-2 in the past seven in Denver.
The probable Avalanche lineup:
FORWARDS
Gabriel Landeskog -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Matt Nieto
Blake Comeau -- Matt Duchene -- Mikko Rantanen
Mikhail Grigorenko -- John Mitchell -- Jarome Iginla
Andreas Martinsen -- Carl Soderberg -- Joe Colborne
DEFENSE
Fedor Tyutin -- Tyson Barrie
Francois Beauchemin -- Nikita Zadorov
Patrick Wiercioch -- Mark Barberio
GOALIES
Calvin Pickard
Jeremy Smith
Colorado Avalanche Blogger •Avalanche Insider • 
Join the Discussion:
»