Avalanche at Wild
The Minnesota Wild are making a late charge for a postseason berth and go for their season-high fifth consecutive victory when they host the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday. The Wild have allowed only three goals during their four-game win streak and are within five points of the final playoff spot in the Western Conference. “For us, we don’t want to make sure we only stay at the level, but push to get to an even higher level,” Minnesota coach Mike Yeo said.
The Avalanche are one point ahead of the Wild and had their own playoff momentum stalled in a 3-0 home loss to Detroit on Thursday - the fourth time in 16 games (9-4-3) that they have failed to secure a point. Colorado had scored four tying goals in a six-game stretch after pulling the goaltender for an extra attacker, but the tactic backfired when the Red Wings scored a pair of empty-net tallies. "Those are points we needed bad," forward Alex Tanguay said. "We just have to refocus and get ready for a big weekend."
TV: 8 p.m. ET, Altitude (Colorado), FSN North (Minnesota)
ABOUT THE AVALANCHE (22-19-11): An increasing source of concern for Colorado is the inability to produce on the power play - the Avalanche failed on three chances versus Detroit and are 0-for-22 over the past seven games. “I guess we’re going to have to think about the players we’re going to put on the ice, and we’re going to have to see about maybe doing things a little different,” coach Patrick Roy. “We've been giving them a lot of chances to produce, and it’s not working. Zero-on-22, that’s not acceptable to me." Colorado is 3-for-43 with the extra skater in 2015.
ABOUT THE WILD (24-20-6): An injury to starting netminder Darcy Kuemper prompted Minnesota to make a trade with Arizona for Devan Dubnyk and it's turned out to be a potential season-saving move. Dubnyk ran his winning streak to four starts by blanking Chicago on Tuesday to improve to 6-1-0 with three shutouts and a 1.48 goals-against average since joining the Wild. "I know how great of a hockey team this is and eventually they were going to start playing better," Dubnyk said. "I'm happy to have the opportunity to be a part of that turnaround."
OVERTIME
1. Minnesota opened the season with a pair of shutout victories over the Avalanche, outscoring them 8-0.
2. Colorado G Semyon Varlamov has lost four straight to the Wild, including Games 6 and 7 of last season's playoff series.
3. Wild F Matt Cooke underwent surgery for a sports hernia and is expected to be sidelined six weeks.