It's bounce-back time for the Avalanche on Saturday against Chicago at the Pepsi Center following their 7-0 throttling on Friday in Las Vegas.
Here are the GAME NOTES.
Jonathan Bernier will start in goal and defenseman Nikita Zadorov will be a healthy scratch for the second game in a row. Chris Bigras also will sit, with Andrei Mironov getting his second game of the season.
Alexander Kerfoot, who took a big hit from Brayden McNabb in the third period Friday, said after an optional morning skate Saturday that he passed concussion protocol tests and will play.
"It was scary, but I feel fine," he said. "I'm just thankful it wasn't anything worse. Fortunately, I wasn't seriously injured." Another forward, Gabriel Bourque, sustained an upper-body injury in the first period and has been placed on injured reserve, along with Colin Wilson (hip). J.T. Compher (broken finger) and Tyson Jost (lower body) already were on IR.
The Avalanche called up Andrew Agozzino and Rocco Grimaldi from AHL San Antonio. Grimaldi will play against the Blackhawks, but Agozzino will be scratched.
"We have to come out and make sure we're real competitive," coach Jared Bednar said. "There's some similarities between Vegas and Chicago; they can score on their chances. Certainly we gave up too many chances last night in the second half of the game. If you make mistakes against a team like Chicago, it will hurt you."
The Avalanche (5-5-0) have lost four of the past five games but are 3-1-0 at home. Chicago (5-4-2) is 2-2-1 on the road.
Corey Crawford was in goal Friday in Chicago's 2-1 loss to Nashville, so rookie Anton Forsberg likely will start Saturday. He played for Bednar with Springfield of the AHL and helped win the Calder Cup as league champions with Bednar and Lake Erie in 2015-16.
"Certainly he's a guy who has proven to be a top guy at the American League level and who has earned his chance to get up there," Bednar said. "It doesn't surprise me that he's playing well for Chicago."
Forsberg, 24, is 0-0-2 this season with a 2.81 goals-against average and .929 save percentage. The Blackhawks acquired him with Brandon Saad and a 2018 fifth-round draft pick from Columbus in June for Artemi Panarin and a 2017 sixth-round pick.
Here's the expected Avalanche lineup:
FORWARDS Sven Andrighetto -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Mikko Rantanen Gabriel Landeskog -- Matt Duchene -- Nail Yakupov Matt Nieto -- Carl Soderberg -- Blake Comeau A.J. Greer -- Alexander Kerfoot -- Rocco Grimaldi
DEFENSE Anton Lindholm -- Erik Johnson Patrik Nemeth -- Tyson Barrie Mark Barberio -- Andrei Mironov
GOALIES Jonathan Bernier Semyon Varlamov