Avalanche at Lightning
Tampa Bay left wing Ondrej Palat is beginning to get rewarded for his efforts on one of the NHL’s best forward lines with All-Star Tyler Johnson and Nikita Kucherov. Palat has produced 17 points in his last 11 games and looks to follow up a two-goal performance when the Lightning go for their seventh straight home-ice victory Saturday against the Colorado Avalanche. The Avalanche has climbed back into the playoff hunt with a 6-2-1 stretch, including Thursday's 4-2 victory at Florida.
Palat does a lot of the dirty work in the corners and is third on his line with 36 points. “I still believe Palat is the straw that stirs the drink on that line,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper told NHL.com. “He’s oozing with hockey sense and he’s skilled. He is like Patrice Bergeron as a winger to me.” Colorado is 10-4-3 since a frustrating 9-13-6 start and goalie Semyon Varlamov boasts a .946 save percentage in seven January games.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, Altitude-2 (Colorado), Sun Sports (Tampa Bay)
ABOUT THE AVALANCHE (19-17-9): Colorado does not have a player among the overall league leaders in scoring, but it has eight who have produced between 22 and 31 points. Defenseman Tyson Barrie (28) had a goal and an assist Thursday and All-Star Erik Johnson (22) lead all blue-liners in the league with 12 goals through Thursday. Alex Tanguay and Jarome Iginla lead the team with 31 points and 30, respectively, while Matt Duchene and captain Gabriel Landeskog have each posted 27.
ABOUT THE LIGHTNING (28-14-4): Captain Steven Stamkos, despite switching linemates constantly, scored six goals in the last six games to tie Dallas’ Tyler Seguin and Rick Nash of the New York Rangers for the league lead with 26 tallies. Johnson returned from a one-game absence due to a lower-body injury to notch two assists in the 3-2 win over Edmonton on Thursday. Nikita Nesterov, a 21-year-old Russian defenseman, has filled in well with two assists and a plus-3 rating in five games.
OVERTIME
1. Tampa Bay’s top D Victor Hedman has missed the last two games with a lower-body injury and could return Saturday after going through a full practice Friday.
2. Iginla scored his 573rd goal on Thursday and needs one to pass Mike Bossy for 20th alone on the NHL’s all-time list.
3. Colorado C Nathan MacKinnon (25 points) and Lightning LW Jonathan Drouin (18) played together on the Halifax Mooseheads when they won the Memorial Cup in 2013.