The Avalanche close out their five-game road trip Monday night in St. Louis looking to finish 2-1-2 before heading home to meet Boston on Wednesday in the final game before the NHL All-Star break.
It won't be easy. The Blues (28-13-4), who are second in the Central Division, are 17-4-2 on home ice and have gone 6-0-1 in their past seven games while outscoring teams 33-13. The Avalanche went 1-1-2 in the first four meetings.
Here are the game notes.
The Avalanche (19-17-10) are 6-2-2 in the past 10 games and 10-4-4 in 18 but remain three points out of the second wild-card spot in the West, held by Calgary before Monday's games. They also trail Los Angeles and Dallas in the standings.
"The last 18 games have been very good," coach Patrick Roy told reporters Monday morning. "We've been playing well, we've been scoring, and we've been playing really well defensively. Our goalies have been outstanding as well and offensively, we'd like to score more goals, but I just feel like we're starting to do some things that will pay off at some point."
They scored nine goals in the first four games of this trip, which included Jarome Iginla's empty-netter Thursday in the 4-2 win against Florida. Nathan MacKinnon's goal with 6.8 seconds left in regulation Saturday in Tampa secured a point in an eventual 3-2 shootout loss.
Goalie Semyon Varlamov has gone 7-3-1 since returning from his third groin injury of the season, allowing 22 goals in that stretch.
Blues goalie Brian Elliott is coming off a 27-save, 3-0 win against Toronto, has an NHL-best 1.90 goals-against average and .929 save percentage that is fourth best.
Another former Avalanche player, Kevin Shattenkirk, is tied with Calgary's Mark Giordano for the league lead among defensemen with 39 points. Shattenkirk has a league-high 24 power-play points.
Center Paul Stastny (9-15-24) has two assists in three previous games against Colorado; he missed the first game because of a shoulder injury.
The Avalanche will need to control the Blues' line of Alexander Steen, David Backes and T.J. Oshie. Steen has a nine-game scoring streak with seven goals and nine assists, while Backes has seven goals and six assists in a six-game streak.
FYI: Defenseman Stefan Elliott was named to the AHL All-Star Game on Jan. 26 in Utica, N.Y. He has 11 goals and 13 assists in 37 games with Lake Erie. No idea what he has to do to get a call-up.
Here's the Avalanche lineup:
FORWARDS Alex Tanguay - Matt Duchene - Jarome Iginla Gabriel Landeskog - Ryan O'Reilly - Nathan MacKinnon Cody McLeod - John Mitchell - Dennis Everberg Max Talbot - Marc-Andre Cliche - Daniel Briere
DEFENSE Jan Hejda - Erik Johnson Nate Guenin - Tyson Barrie Nick Holden - Brad Stuart
GOALIES Semyon Varlamov Calvin Pickard