Wild at Avalanche
Zach Parise and the surging Minnesota Wild can deal a brutal blow to the Colorado Avalanche's postseason aspirations on Saturday afternoon when the Central Division rivals battle at the Pepsi Center. Parise secured his fifth career hat trick in Minnesota's 6-2 win over Calgary on Thursday, and the 31-year-old also scored three goals in the club's season-opening victory over Colorado on Oct. 8.
Parise has recorded seven points (four goals, three assists) to lead the Wild to a 3-0-1 mark versus the Avalanche this season and 28 (11 goals, 17 assists) in 25 career encounters. The veteran forward's play of late has helped Minnesota win four in a row and open a three-point cushion over Colorado for the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference. "I think we have to approach it as a must-win situation," Avalanche defenseman Francois Beauchemin told NHL.com. "We have eight games left, we know where we're at, it's a must-win situation. We've lost a couple games to these guys already, and this is a big one."
TV: 3 p.m. ET, FSN North (Minnesota), Altitude (Colorado), NHL.TV
ABOUT THE WILD (36-28-11): Like clockwork, Devan Dubnyk steps up his game during the latter half of the season - and 2016 has been no exception. After a spirited second-half surge made him a Vezina Trophy finalist last year, Dubnyk improved to 9-1-1 in his last 11 decisions by making 31 saves versus the Flames to join Niklas Backstrom and Manny Fernandez as the only Wild goaltenders to record 30 wins in a season. Dubnyk should have no issue convincing the Avalanche of his ability, posting a 7-3-0 club mark with a 1.81 goals-against average versus the club.
ABOUT THE AVALANCHE (38-32-4): Colorado is expected to play without injured leading scorers Matt Duchene and Nathan MacKinnon, as it did on Thursday when the team fell for just the second time in seven outings with a 4-2 setback to red-hot Philadelphia. "We know that we have a deep enough team, a good enough team to win," captain Gabriel Landeskog told reporters. "It's a matter of focusing on what we have, focusing on what we have in the lineup." Duchene (team-leading 29 goals, 56 points) and MacKinnon (52 points) are nursing knee injuries and are expected to be re-evaluated on Sunday.
OVERTIME
1. Minnesota LW Erik Haula has three goals and four assists during his career-high seven-game point streak.
2. Avalanche G Semyon Varlamov has been confirmed to start on Saturday and looks to atone for yielding three goals in the first period before being pulled en route to a 6-3 setback to the Wild on March 1.
3. Wild RW Nino Niederreiter, who scored two goals and set up another in that contest, has five tallies and three assists in his last seven games.