The Avalanche takes a six-game winning streak into Sunday night's regular-season home finale against the injury-riddled Pittsburgh Penguins with a chance to move within three points of the Central Division-leading St. Louis Blues.
The Avalanche (50-21-6, 106 points) is second in the division, five points behind the Blues (52-19-7), who lost 4-2 Sunday afternoon to the third-place Chicago Blackhawks (45-19-15), who pulled within one point of Colorado. The Avalanche will have one game in hand on the Blackhawks after playing the Penguins.
"We want to get home ice (for the playoffs) whether we catch St. Louis or we beat out Chicago," center Paul Stastny said Sunday morning. "We just want to keep playing better once playoffs hits. Pittsburgh's second in the Eastern Conference and coming off a tough loss (4-0 Saturday in Minnesota), so they'll be hungry. We have to focus on our last home game before playoffs and be ready to go."
Semyon Varlamov, who has won a career-high 40 games, will start his eighth consecutive game with a chance to break coach and former star goalie Patrick Roy's franchise record for wins in a season. Roy won 40 games in 2000-01 when the Avalanche won the Stanley Cup for the second time.
Varlamov also has matched Roy's franchise record for wins at home (24), which Roy set in 2000-01. Varlamov, who made 31 saves Saturday in the Avalanche's 4-0 win in St. Louis, has limited teams to 12 goals during the six-game streak.
"The way he's been playing for us, he's our Hart Trophy winner," Roy said. "He's been outstanding in every game lately. What impressed me is the commitment he made in the summer to be ready for this year and the commitment he made every time he stepped on the ice."
Roy said the win against the Blues "absolutely" was significant for a number of reasons.
"First of all, it's a team that we struggled against earlier in the year in the first two games (losing by the combined score of 11-4)," Roy said. "The last game here (a 2-1 loss), I thought we played better than them and had a really strong game. Yesterday afternoon was even better. We outplayed them in penalty killing, we outplayed them on the power play. We did the same thing five-on-five."
Roy also said he was "very impressed" with the way his team responded to the Blues' physical play, especially in the third period.
"I thought we did a good job in that regard," he said.
Roy said the Avalanche has had to be in playoff mode "since the first day of the season" because of the rugged Western Conference competition.
"We know how tough our conference is," he said. "We were 14-2 and we were not even first in our conference. That just shows you how tough this conference is. We had to approach every game as a playoff game, and that's what our guys have done. I really believe we've benefited from this. I think this really prepares us well."
The Penguins (49-24-5), who close out their road schedule Sunday, have clinched first place in the Metropolitan Division and second in the Eastern Conference, so they don't have much to play for and have nine players listed as injured.
The Penguins aren't playing Sidney Crosby, Chris Kunitz, Olli Maata and Brooks Orpik because of unspecified injuries.
“They’re injuries that every one of the players has been playing with,… Penguins coach Dan Bylsma told Pittsburgh reporters. “It wasn't prudent to (have them play)] in back-to-back games.…
Here's the Avalanche lineup (Reto Berra scratched; Cory Sarich has joined the injury list with a back ailment):
FORWARDS Gabriel Landeskog - Paul Stastny - John Mitchell Ryan O'Reilly - Nathan MacKinnon - Jamie McGinn Maxime Talbot - Marc-Andre Cliche - Patrick Bordeleau Ryan Wilson - Brad Malone - Paul Carey
DEFENSE Jan Hejda -- Erik Johnson Andre Benoit -- Nate Guenin Nick Holden - Tyson Barrie
GOALIES Semyon Varlamov Jean-Sebastien Giguere