Avalanche at Canadiens
The Montreal Canadiens successfully navigated a season-opening four-game road trip with three wins and look to keep rolling when they continue a four-game homestand versus the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday. Montreal is coming off its best offensive output in a 6-4 victory over Boston in Thursday's home opener. "It's nice to get everybody on the scoresheet," forward Max Pacioretty said. "We have a lot of depth on this team, and you want everybody feeling good about themselves offensively."
With ex-Canadien and Hall of Famer Patrick Roy behind the bench, it's somewhat ironic that the Avalanche have major issues in net with their top two goaltenders hurt. Semyon Varlamov was placed on injured reserve Thursday with a groin injury and backup Reto Berra was hurt in the opening minutes of Thursday's 5-3 loss at Ottawa - a game in which the Avalanche blew a pair of two-goal leads. Colorado recalled netminder Sami Aittokallio from Lake Erie of the American Hockey League to join Calvin Pickard, who was called up on an emergency basis Thursday and wound up taking the loss in his NHL debut.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, Altitude (Colorado), City, TVA (Montreal)
ABOUT THE AVALANCHE (1-3-1): Varlamov will miss at least two more games and the prognosis on Berra is unclear, but one big positive to come out of Thursday's setback was the play of center John Mitchell. Making his season debut and seeing his first action since April 10 due to migraines and concussion-like symptoms, Mitchell had a short-handed goal and appeared to earn a promotion to the third line after Colorado reassigned Swedish rookie Dennis Everberg to Lake Erie on Friday. The Avalanche scored only four goals in the first four games but netted three in the first period Thursday.
ABOUT THE CANADIENS (4-1-0): Center Brendan Gallagher was elevated to the No. 1 line alongside Pacioretty and David Desharnais and he responded by scoring a pair of goals and assisting on another as the unit combined for eight points. Pacioretty scored one of Montreal's two power-play goals, a huge relief after the Canadiens came up empty on all 14 chances with the man advantage through the first four games. "The power play was good," Montreal coach Michel Therrien said. "Finally we capitalized on our power play, but I liked the spirit. I liked that we were more aggressive to the net and we got some chances."
OVERTIME
1. Gallagher has three goals and two assists during a three-game point streak.
2. Colorado recorded its first power-play tally Thursday but is only 1-for-18 on the season.
3. The Canadiens and Avalanche split two meetings last season, each winning by three goals on their home ice.