Avalanche at Flames
Veteran Jarome Iginla looks to continue his current hot streak on Friday as the Colorado Avalanche visit his longtime former team in the Calgary Flames. Iginla set up a goal in the Avalanche's 3-1 victory over Vancouver on Wednesday for his 1,268th career point and 17th (six goals, 11 assists) in his last 18 games.
The 38-year-old Iginla doubled his career point total versus the team with which he spent parts of 16 seasons when collected two goals and an assist in Colorado's 6-3 win over Calgary on Nov. 3. Winners of four of their last six, the Avalanche are clinging to a one-point lead over Minnesota for the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference. Calgary has also won four of six (4-1-1), including two straight to improve to 3-1-1 on its six-game homestand. Michael Frolik recorded his second consecutive three-point performance in a 4-1 victory over Winnipeg on Wednesday and had an assist in the first meeting with Colorado.
TV: 9 p.m. ET, Altitude (Colorado), RSNC (Calgary), NHL.TV
ABOUT THE AVALANCHE (36-31-4): Goaltender Semyon Varlamov is heeding coach Patrick Roy's words about remaining focused on the matter at hand and leaving the scoreboard-watching to others. "Right now, we're not looking at the standings anymore," the 27-year-old Russian told the Avalanche's official website. "We just need to win our games. ... I can tell you it's up to us." Varlamov has yielded just five goals in his last four games (3-1-0), but was blitzed for four tallies on 19 shots to earn an early exit in a 4-0 loss to Calgary on Jan. 2.
ABOUT THE FLAMES (30-35-5): Joe Colborne could barely contain his excitement after his line of Mikael Backlund and Frolik continued its torrid stretch. "It's fun playing with those two," Colborne said. "When you're on a line with two guys that are going like that, it's a lot of fun. I think we're just three similar guys." Colborne scored four goals and set up two others in his last six games while Backlund has four tallies and as many assists in his last seven.
OVERTIME
1. Calgary captain Mark Giordano has three goals and six assists in his last seven games and has one of each versus Colorado this season.
2. Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog will serve the final contest of his three-game suspension on Friday.
3. Flames G Joni Ortio is expected to make his seventh consecutive start on Friday.