The Avalanche figure to be in tough Wednesday night when they face the Los Angeles Kings at the Pepsi Center to close out a four-game homestand.
Here are the game notes.
And here's my NHL.com feature on Jarome Iginla. He said he has no regrets about signing with the Avalanche last summer despite what has been such a disappointing season.
The defending Stanley Cup champions (26-18-12) have righted the ship after a stretch in January that carried into the first week of February when they won just two of 10 games. They've won five in a row while outscoring teams 19-11 to pull within two points of San Jose for the second wild-card playoff spot in the West.
The Avalanche (24-22-11), who have won two games in a row, are seven points behind with plenty of teams to climb over.
"We have to catch up," Avalanche coach Patrick Roy said. "It is a big game for us. It is an opportunity for us to get closer to L.A. There's no better way than to play against them and find a way to win that game."
The Avalanche combined for nine goals against Dallas and Arizona in the past two games and they have 15 goals in the past four. They finally scored a power-play goal Monday against the Coyotes to end an 0-for-32 slump.
"We were joking on the bench that we were deadly -- 1-for-1 -- so we felt like we were hot," Nathan MacKinnon said. "It's been a struggle, but we got it kicked off and it definitely takes a little pressure off.
"It hasn't been the dream season that we wanted it to be. We're chasing in the standings and we need these points, but so do they. We're both on the outside looking in. These are definitely teams that we have to beat, especially at this point in the season."
The Kings have been through this before, turning it on down the stretch to get into the playoffs and making plenty of noise once they get there.
"We knew we never should have been as far back as we were," defenseman Drew Doughty said. "We weren't playing even close to our capability and now we're seeing what we can do when everyone starts to perform. We're happy with the way we're playing now, but we can't get ahead of ourselves. We have to continue this, we need to keep winning. We're still not in a playoff spot, so we still have a lot of work left to do.
"We just needed a bigger sense of urgency, that it wasn't just going to happen overnight. We needed to do something about it. We never panicked. We go through these stretches every year. I think most of the guys on this team thrive under the pressure."
Avalanche goalie Semyon Varlamov will make his 14th consecutive start. He has a 5-2-1 career record against the Kings with one shutout, a 1.83 goals-against average and .937 save percentage.
Jonathan Quick will start for the 13th game in a row for the Kings. He has a 9-4-1 record against the Avalanche with two shutouts, a 2.54 average and .901 save percentage.
No changes in the Avalanche lineup:
FORWARDS Gabriel Landeskog - Ryan O'Reilly - Nathan MacKinnon Max Talbot - Matt Duchene - Jarome Iginla Alex Tanguay - John Mitchell - Dennis Everberg Cody McLeod - Marc-Andre Cliche - Paul Carey
DEFENSE Jan Hejda - Zach Redmond Nate Guenin - Tyson Barrie Brad Stuart - Nick Holden
GOALIES Semyon Varlamov Reto Berra