The Avalanche close out their four-game road trip Saturday in Minnesota, the first of a home-and-home series with the Wild. They'll play again Monday at the Pepsi Center when the Avalanche honor their 20th anniversary team (see below).
Here are the game notes.
This will be the first meeting between the teams since opening night, when the Wild scored four third-period goals in a 5:07 span to pull out a 5-4 win at the Pepsi Center.
"I don't see it as a make-or-break, but this is an important moment in our season," Avalanche coach Patrick Roy told the Denver Post after the morning skate. "There are different times in the season where you really want to win some hockey games and I think this one's going to be an important one for us."
The Avalanche (11-14-1) have won two games in a row and four of the past six games. The Wild (13-7-4) also have won two consecutive games after going 1-4-2 in the previous seven. Goalie Semyon Varlamov, who has yet to win two successive games this season, made 24 saves Thursday in the Avalanche's 2-1 win against the New York Rangers. He's gone 8-9-1 in his career against the Wild in regular-season play with one shutout, a 2.45 goals-against average and .922 save percentage.
Forward Andreas Martinsen and defenseman Zach Redmond will be scratched for the second game in a row.
Devan Dubnyk is scheduled to start in goal for Minnesota. His wife is due to give birth to their second child, and Dubnyk has said he won't miss it. He's gone 11-6-1 against the Avalanche with two shutouts, a 2.19 average and .931 save percentage.
The Gabriel Landeskog-Nathan MacKinnon-Matt Duchene line has combined for seven goals and nine assists in the past six games, but MacKinnon doesn't have a point in the past three. Duchene has four goals and two assists in this stretch with 13 goals and nine assists in the past 16 games.
The Avalanche will need to pay close attention to Zach Parise, who had a hat trick opening night and has 24 points (10 goals, 14 assists) in 22 games against them. He has one assist in the Wild's past four games after missing eight with a sprained knee, but he could break out at any time.
“It’s very frustrating,… Parise told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. “The hard part is I felt really good about the way I was playing before I got hurt, just the way I was skating, the way I was handling the puck. When you come back you want to pick up where you left off, and that’s hard to do. It’s been a lot of work to try to get back to where I was."
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The Avalanche will introduce the 20 members of their 20th anniversary team, as voted by fans, before Monday's game against the Wild. The team includes 12 forwards, six defensemen and two goalies. Former general manager Pierre Lacroix also will be honored.
Forwards: Adam Deadmarsh, Chris Drury, Matt Duchene, Peter Forsberg, Milan Hejduk, Valeri Kamensky, Gabriel Landeskog, Claude Lemieux, Joe Sakic, Paul Stastny, Alex Tanguay, Stephane Yelle
Defensemen: Rob Blake, Ray Bourque, Adam Foote, Erik Johnson, John-Michael Liles, Sandis Ozolinsh
Goalies: Patrick Roy, Semyon Varlamov