The Avalanche open a five-game road trip Monday night in Washington, where goalie Semyon Varlamov will start against his former team for the third time. He won both previous appearances with a 1.00 goals-against average and .973 save percentage.
Here are the game notes.
Varlamov has been terrific since returning from his third groin injury, posting a 6-2-0 record with two shutouts, a 1.96 goals-against average and .940 save percentage. He was named the NHL's second star of the week after winning three games with a 1.67 average and .962 save percentage; he stopped 127 of 132 shots.
St. Louis' David Backes (five goals, three assists in three games) was first star, and Florida's Jonathan Huberdeau (three goals, two assists in three games) was third. The Avalanche will face both on this trip.
No easy ones here, not that the Avalanche are in position to take any team for granted. They'll face Carolina on Tuesday followed by Florida, Tampa Bay and St. Louis.
Washington (22-11-8, 52 points) has won five consecutive home games and outscored teams 55-35 while going 12-1-4 in the past 17 games. Alex Ovechkin scored a spectacular goal with 5:54 left in regulation when the Capitals beat the Avalanche 3-2 in Denver on Nov. 20 with Reto Berra in goal.
Braden Holtby will make his 19th consecutive start for the Capitals. He's 12-2-4 with a 2.14 average and .930 save percentage in this streatch. I find it really interesting that Berra has been sent to Lake Erie and that Calvin Pickard is back and will start Tuesday against the Hurricanes. The Avalanche are 3-0-2 in the first game when playing back to back and 1-3-1 in the second, so the pressure will be on Pickard to play as well as he did before he was returned to Cleveland for the third time on Dec. 28.
Berra didn't need to clear waivers because of the two-week "conditioning" assignment that will take him through the NHL All-Star break. He hasn't played since relieving Varlamov in the third period Dec. 5 in Winnipeg and he hasn't started since Nov. 25 when he gave up three goals on eight shots in Arizona and was replaced by Pickard in the first period. The Monsters don't play again until Friday in Chicago.
Pickard made 23 saves Saturday in Lake Erie's 2-1 win against Hamilton. He has an 8-6-3 record with a 2.73 average and .912 save percentage in the AHL. He's 6-6-2 with a 2.21 average and .934 save percentage with the Avalanche.
The Avalanche (18-16-8, 44 points) are four points behind Los Angeles (19-13-10, 48 points), which has the second wild card playoff position in the Western Conference. Winnipeg (21-14-8, 50 points) has the first wild card spot after taking three of a possible four points in back-to-back games against the Kings and Anaheim over the weekend.
Here's the Avalanche lineup:
FORWARDS Gabriel Landeskog - Matt Duchene - Borna Rendulic Alex Tanguay - Ryan O'Reilly - Jarome Iginla Max Talbot - John Mitchell - Nathan MacKinnon Cody McLeod - Marc-Andre Cliche - Daniel Briere
DEFENSE Jan Hejda - Erik Johnson Nate Guenin - Tyson Barrie Nick Holden - Brad Stuart
GOALIES Semyon Varlamov Calvin Pickard