No lineup changes for the Avalanche as they begin second half play Saturday by meeting New Jersey to kick off a three-game road trip.
Philipp Grubauer will make his third consecutive start after turning aside 24 shots Thursday in the Avalanche’s 7-3 win against St. Louis. It was his first win since a 3-1 win against Toronto on Dec. 4, ending a five-game losing streak (0-4-1).
Grubauer has played well against the Devils. He had 37 saves Dec. 13 in the Avalanche’s 3-1 win against them at the Pepsi Center when the Devils scratched Taylor Hall before eventually trading him to Arizona.
Grubauer has a 3-0-0 career record against them with a shutout, 1.67 goals-against average and .933 save percentage.
The Avalanche (24-13-4) haven’t won two games in a row since Dec. 11-13 when they defeated Philadelphia and New Jersey at home.
The Devils are 15-19-6 on the season, but they’ve been playing well lately, going 4-0-1 in their past five games and 6-2-1 in the past nine.
Rookie defenseman Cale Makar is a Last Men In candidate to join Nathan MacKinnon on the Central Division team for the 2020 NHL All-Star Game.
Voting ends Jan. 10 at 9:59 p.m. MT.
Fans can vote at NHL.com/Vote or on a mobile interactive ballot on the NHL app.
The lineup:
FORWARDS Gabriel Landeskog -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Joonas Donskoi Valeri Nichushkin -- Nazem Kadri – Matt Calvert Matt Nieto -- J.T. Compher -- Mikko Rantanen Tyson Jost -- Pierre-Edouard Bellemare -- Andre Burakovsky
DEFENSE Ryan Graves -- Cale Makar Samuel Girard -- Erik Johnson Nikita Zadorov -- Ian Cole
GOALIES Philipp Grubauer Pavel Francouz