Wild at Avalanche
The Colorado Avalanche are not playing anything like the team that finished with the worst record in the NHL last season as they attempt to extend their winning streak to five games Saturday against the visiting Minnesota Wild. The Avalanche, who recorded just 22 victories in 2016-17, have allowed six goals during their string of success and their top players are producing points by the bundle.
“It’s a lot of fun to play right now,” Colorado captain Gabriel Landeskog told reporters after Thursday's 2-0 win over Columbus. “Four (wins) in a row, and that’s what you need to do if you want to make the playoffs. You have to get a streak going, and that’s what we’re doing. But we can’t get too comfortable. We have to keep working hard.” The Avalanche must produce a similar effort to snap a four-game losing streak against Minnesota, which posted a 3-2 triumph in a shootout on Nov. 24 in the first meeting this season. The Wild also are playing some of their best hockey of the campaign, winning four of their last five games, and are as healthy as they have been all season after Nino Niederreiter returned from a five-game absence due to an ankle injury to register a hat trick in Thursday’s 6-2 win over Buffalo. “We played simple,” Niederreiter told reporters after the victory. “It was a good win for us, and we’ve got to take the confidence we got from that game into the next one.”
TV: 9 p.m. ET, FS North Plus (Minnesota), Altitude (Colorado)
ABOUT THE WILD (22-16-3): Devan Dubnyk has allowed a total of five goals while posting three victories since returning from a lower-body injury to pass Manny Fernandez (113) for second place on the franchise wins list. Eric Staal, who also tops the club with 35 points, has scored three of his team-leading 17 goals in his last five games while Mikael Granlund has registered eight points in the same span to push his season total to 30. Jared Spurgeon has been quite productive of late, collecting a goal and five assists over his last five contests to give the Wild three defensemen (Ryan Suter - 24, Matt Dumba - 21) with at least 21 points.
ABOUT THE AVALANCHE (21-16-3): Nathan MacKinnon finds himself among the league's scoring leaders after recording two goals and seven assists in his last four games to push his team-high total to 49 points. Mikko Rantanen continues to pile up points as well, notching 16 of his 38 in his last 13 contests, while Landeskog has collected 12 (six goals) in his last nine games to increase his season total to 31. Jonathan Bernier (8-7-1, .906 save percentage) started in place of the injured Semyon Varlamov (lower body) on Thursday, turning aside 34 shots en route to his second shutout of the season, and is expected to be in net against Minnesota.
OVERTIME
1. Minnesota D Nate Prosser’s next game will be his 300th in the NHL and C Matt Cullen is one point shy of 700 for his career.
2. The Avalanche will retire the No. 23 jersey of Milan Hejduk, who totaled 805 points in 1,020 games with the club, in a pregame ceremony on Saturday.
3. Suter has been kept off the scoresheet in three straight games but is second in the league in average ice time (26 minutes, 55 seconds).