Wild at Avalanche
The Colorado Avalanche have scored 165 goals this season, but none have come against the Minnesota Wild. Colorado will try to snap a three-game goalless string against its Central Division rivals as it hosts the red-hot Wild on Saturday night. Minnesota opened its regular season with consecutive shutout victories over the Avalanche, then extended Colorado's dry spell with a 1-0 victory Feb. 7 to increase its winning streak over the Avalanche to five games.
Only one of the three shutouts belongs to Devan Dubnyk, who turned aside 18 shots in the encounter earlier this month and will likely make his 20th consecutive start since coming to the Wild in a trade with the Arizona Coyotes. His renaissance has vaulted Minnesota into the second wild-card berth, a spot it held onto thanks to Calgary's 2-1 loss to the New York Islanders on Friday. The Avalanche rallied from two goals down Friday night to upend the Dallas Stars 5-4 in a shootout.
TV: 10 p.m. ET, FS-N (Minnesota), ALT (Colorado)
ABOUT THE WILD (32-22-7): Much of the attention for Minnesota's second-half resurgence has gone to Dubnyk and, to a lesser extent, team scoring leader Zach Parise. But forward Nino Niederreiter has also been a significant contributor to the Wild's playoff hopes, ranking second on the team with 21 goals and tied for fifth with 30 points. Niederreiter, seemingly on the verge of becoming a first-round bust before arriving in Minnesota, scored twice in the Wild's win over the Predators on Thursday and has five goals in his last six games.
ABOUT THE AVALANCHE (27-24-11): It has been a bit of a lost season for Colorado, particularly on the offensive end. Matt Duchene, captain Gabriel Landeskog and Nathan MacKinnon are all having subpar seasons by their lofty standards, while 37-year-old Jarome Iginla leads the team in points with 42. MacKinnon's slump has been particularly baffling; the first overall pick in the 2013 draft burst out of the gate as an 18-year-old with 24 goals and 39 assists in 82 games last season, but has just 13 and 24 assists in 61 contests in 2014-15.
OVERTIME
1. Dubnyk is 14-3-1 with a 1.68 goals-against average and a .934 save percentage with Minnesota.
2. The home team has prevailed in nine of the previous 11 meetings.
3. Niederreiter has two goals and two assists in nine career games against Colorado.