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Injured Rantanen undergoing tests

March 22, 2019, 7:05 PM ET [1 Comments]
Rick Sadowski
Colorado Avalanche Blogger •Avalanche Insider • RSSArchiveCONTACT
We might not know until closer to game time Saturday afternoon if Avalanche right wing Mikko Rantanen will be able to play against Chicago at the Pepsi Center – or in Chicago on Sunday, for that matter.

Coach Jared Bednar couldn’t give a definitive prognosis following an optional practice Friday in which Rantanen didn’t participate.

Rantanen was injured late in the third period in the Avalanche’s 3-1 win in Dallas on Thursday when he absorbed a hard check into the benches. He grimaced in pain and missed the remainder of the game with what looked like a mid-body injury.

“He’s getting some work done right now and he’ll get evaluated again this afternoon, and we’ll go from there,” Bednar said. “I really don’t have an answer on him for tomorrow.”

Asked if it’s possible he could play Saturday, Bednar said: “Oh, it’s possible. Anything’s possible.”

Then: “I really don’t know, to be honest with you.”

Rantanen is the Avalanche's second-leading scorer with 87 points (31 goals, 56 points) in 74 games.

He was walking around at the practice facility on Friday while wearing street clothes, for whatever that's worth.

What is it about Dallas? The Avalanche lost captain Gabriel Landeskog to an upper-body injury in their previous visit there, a 4-0 loss on March 7.

The Avalanche have gone 4-2-0 without Landeskog, winning the last three games by a cumulative score of 9-2, getting excellent play from goalie Philipp Grubauer, who made 44 saves Thursday.

The Avalanche have climbed into the second wild card playoff position with Arizona, which lost to Florida on Thursday. The teams are tied with 78 points and 32 regulation/overtime wins, but the Avalanche are plus-10 in goal differential while the Coyotes are minus-10. They each have eight games remaining.

Minnesota, which has 77 points, could move into the second wild card spot Friday with a win in Washington. The Wild will have seven games left after playing the Capitals.

As for the Avalanche, they really do have their playoff destiny in their hands, starting with this home-and-home series with the Blackhawks, who are four points behind.

“Grubi’s been great. He’s been outstanding, actually,” Bednar said of Grubauer, who is 5-2-0 with three shutouts, a 0.85 goals-against average and .972 save percentage in his past eight games (seven starts).

“I like the urgency and the intensity that we’re playing with,” Bednar said. “It just looks like it means a lot to our guys right now. No passengers throughout our lineup. Everyone’s contributing the way that they can. There’s a lot of sacrifice in our game.”

The lineup (if Rantanen plays):

Derick Brassard -- Nathan MacKinnon -- J.T. Compher
Colin Wilson -- Carl Soderberg -- Mikko Rantanen
Alexander Kerfoot -- Tyson Jost -- Matt Calvert
Gabriel Bourque -- Sven Andrighetto

Samuel Girard -- Erik Johnson
Ian Cole -- Tyson Barrie
Nikita Zadorov -- Patrik Nemeth
Ryan Graves

Philipp Grubauer
Semyon Varlamov



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