The Avalanche conclude their four-game road trip Saturday in Tampa.
The
GAME NOTES.
The teams have plenty of offensive firepower, but the Lightning prevailed 1-0 at the Pepsi Center on Oct. 24. There were plenty of scoring chances in a very entertaining game.
Semyon Varlamov made 23 saves that night and will be back in goal.
Tampa Bay leads the NHL with 115 goals and the Avalanche are second with 107.
The Avalanche have gone 2-1 in the first three games of the trip, are 10-1-2 in the past 13 games overall and will have played 19 of the first 30 games away from home after this game.
“Certainly, we are going to have to work real hard away from the puck here tonight and hopefully we can use our speed a little bit to counter attack and attack them,” coach
Jared Bednar told reporters after the morning skate.
The Lightning have won five games in a row, are 8-1-0 in their past nine games and own the NHL’s best record (22-7-1, 45 points).
The Avalanche (17-7-5) and Western Conference-leading Nashville are tied with 39 points each, but the Predators have two more wins. They play in Calgary on Saturday.
The
Gabriel Landeskog-Nathan MacKinnon-Mikko Rantanen line is together again. Bednar switched Rantanen with
J.T. Compher in the third period Thursday in Florida and Compher scored the tie-breaking goal in a 5-2 win.
Rantanen has five goals and 13 assists in a 10-game point streak, passing his previous career high of nine games set at the start of the season. He remains the NHL leader in points (47) and assists (35).
One lineup change:
Sven Andrighetto replaces
Gabriel Bourque on the fourth line.
The lineup:
Gabriel Landeskog -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Mikko Rantanen
Tyson Jost - J.T. Compher -- Colin Wilson
Matt Nieto -- Carl Soderberg -- Matt Calvert
Vladislav Kamenev -- Alexander Kerfoot -- Sven Andrighetto
Samuel Girard -- Erik Johnson
Ian Cole -- Tyson Barrie
Patrik Nemeth -- Nikita Zadorov
Semyon Varlamov
Philipp Grubauer
Colorado Avalanche Blogger •Avalanche Insider • 
Join the Discussion:
»