Sabres at Avalanche
The Colorado Avalanche attempt to keep alive their faint playoff chances when they host the league-worst Buffalo Sabres on Saturday. Colorado, which won the Central Division title last season, is 10 points behind Winnipeg for the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference with eight games remaining. The Avalanche snapped their three-game slide Thursday with a 4-1 triumph at Vancouver as captain Gabriel Landeskog and Alex Tanguay each recorded a goal and an assist.
Buffalo is looking to end a skid that reached four games with Thursday's 4-3 overtime loss to Arizona. The Sabres occupy the league basement with 48 points, six fewer than the Coyotes. Colorado won the opener of the two-game season series on Dec. 20, posting a 5-1 road victory as Tanguay registered two goals and an assist while John Mitchell and defenseman Erik Johnson added one of each.
TV: 9 p.m. ET, MSG (Buffalo), Altitude2 (Colorado)
ABOUT THE SABRES (20-46-8): Buffalo will be without leading scorer Tyler Ennis on Saturday as the 25-year-old center suffered an upper-body injury in the overtime loss to Arizona. Ennis, who tops the club in goals (19) and points (42), is two tallies away from tying his career high set last season. "It's a big loss," captain Brian Gionta told the team's website. "He's a big key to our offense, to our power play." Ennis also is first on the club with six man-advantage goals.
ABOUT THE AVALANCHE (34-28-12): Tanguay has recorded 462 points as a member of the Avalanche, two behind Dale Hunter for seventh place on the franchise list. Ryan O'Reilly enters Saturday with a six-game point streak during which he has collected four goals and seven assists. The 24-year-old has recorded three straight multi-point performances and notched at least one point in 10 of his last 11 contests.
OVERTIME
1. The Sabres need one point to avoid matching the lowest point total in franchise history (48 in 2012-13).
2. Avalanche RW Jarome Iginla netted his team-leading 26th goal Thursday to tie Jean Beliveau for 40th place on the all-time scoring list with 1,219 points.
3. Buffalo recalled C Tim Schaller from Rochester of the American Hockey League on Friday.