The Avalanche play in Minnesota on Sunday to close out their five-game road trip.
GAME NOTES
The Avalanche have gone 3-1-0 in the first four games of the trip, with three straight wins, and are 6-1-2 in the past nine games overall.
Colorado (31-16-6) has a one-point lead over Dallas for second place in the Central Division with two games in hand and trails first-place St. Louis by five points with three games in hand.
The Wild (26-22-6) have won three games in a row, are 6-2-0 in their past eight games and are three points behind Winnipeg for the second wild card playoff spot in the Western Conference.
The Avalanche, who didn’t have a morning skate, likely will start
Pavel Francouz. Philipp Grubauer started the first four games of the trip and allowed one goal in each of the past three.
Grubauer made 31 saves Saturday in the Avalanche’s 2-1 come-from-behind win in Columbus.
Nazem Kadri and
Nathan MacKinnon scored third-period goals.
It was Colorado’s first win this season (now 1-11-1) when trailing heading to the third period.
The Avalanche play Ottawa on Tuesday at the Pepsi Center to open a five-game homestand that includes the Stadium Series game Saturday against Los Angeles at the Air Force Academy.
They haven’t played at home since Jan. 20 against Detroit.
The projected lineup:
FORWARDS
Gabriel Landeskog -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Mikko Rantanen
Valeri Nichushkin -- Nazem Kadri -- Andre Burakovsky
Matt Calvert -- J.T. Compher -- Joonas Donskoi
Matt Nieto -- Pierre-Edouard Bellemare -- Tyson Jost
DEFENSE
Ryan Graves -- Cale Makar
Samuel Girard -- Erik Johnson
Nikita Zadorov -- Ian Cole
GOALIES
Pavel Francouz
Philipp Grubauer
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