Avalanche at Flames
The Calgary Flames still have aspirations of winning the Pacific Division, but for now they'll be happy to keep hold of the second wild card in the Western Conference. Calgary looks to maintain the spot when it begins its final homestand of the season - a four-game string - Monday against the Colorado Avalanche.
Calgary edged host St. Louis 3-2 in overtime on Saturday to move two points ahead of the Blues in the wild-card race and 11 clear of ninth-place Los Angeles but entered Sunday only three behind Anaheim, San Jose and Edmonton, who occupy the top three positions in the Pacific. Sean Monahan set up the tying goal midway through the third period and scored the winner at 4:57 of the extra session, giving him six points over his last four contests. Colorado, which sits in the league basement - 20 points behind 29th-ranked Arizona, is hoping to halt a five-game overall losing streak and reach double digits in road wins with its first in nine tries. Matt Duchene leads the Avalanche with 17 goals but has scored just once in his last 17 games.
TV: 9 p.m. ET, Altitude (Colorado), Sportsnet West (Calgary)
ABOUT THE AVALANCHE (20-51-3): Sven Andrighetto scored the lone goal in Colorado's 4-1 loss at Edmonton on Saturday, giving him three tallies and seven points in 11 games since coming over from Montreal at the March 1 trade deadline. The 24-year-old right wing recorded two goals and six assists in 27 contests with the Canadiens prior to the deal. Nathan MacKinnon leads the Avalanche with 47 points and is five shy of matching his 2015-16 total.
ABOUT THE FLAMES (42-29-4): Several players can hit milestones Monday as captain Mark Giordano is one goal away from 100 for his career, Kris Versteeg needs one assist for 200 and Johnny Gaudreau is one point shy of 200. The 23-year-old Gaudreau leads the team with 56 points after collecting 21 over his last 16 games. Mikael Backlund, who is Calgary's nominee for the Bill Masterton Trophy, is second on the team with 21 goals - one-third of which are game-winners.
OVERTIME
1. The Flames outscored the Avalanche 10-4 in winning the first two meetings of the season.
2. Colorado captain LW Gabriel Landeskog has gone five games without a point and notched just one assist over his last nine contests.
3. Calgary rookie LW Matthew Tkachuk returned to the lineup Saturday after serving a two-game suspension for elbowing Los Angeles' D Drew Doughty.