Game 33 Preview: Islanders @ Avalanche

The Avs come home Thursday riding some big time momentum. With a sweep of their three game Central divison road trip, the Avs have climbed out of the basement in the Central and back into clawing range of a playoff spot. The successful trip reached its highest point with Tuesday night's 3-0 victory over the defending champs. The Avs controlled the game against the Blackhawks, and behind Semyon Varlamov's first shutout of the year, the Avs gained ground in the Central and stopped Patrick Kane's historic 26-game point streak. Using the road to play some of their best hockey of the season, the Avs now enter a stretch of games in which they will play nine of ten on home ice.

That stretch kicks of Thursday night against the New York Islanders. Coming off a rough 5-1 loss to the Panthers on home ice Tuesday, the Islanders have seen a lot of overtime of late. The Isles have played extra time in five of their last seven games since playing the Avalanche on November 30th. Since that time they have gone 5-1-1. The isles won that contest on November 30th, 5-3. The Avs will look to kick off their home stretch with a little vengeance.

LINES

Landeskog-MacKinnon-Duchene

Tanguay-Mitchell-Iginla

Martinsen-Soderberg-Comeau

McLeod-Grigorenko-Skille

Beauchemin-Johnson

Holden-Barrie

Guenin-Redmond

Varlamov

Berra

Scratches: Gormley, Wagner

NOTES

- The Islanders have a 10-2-1 record against the Western Conference this season.

- The Avs are still one of three teams (the Blackhawks and Coyotes are the others) yet to participate in a shootout.

- The Avs are 0-5-1 at home against the Eastern conference.

GAME INFO

Game time: 7pm MT

TV: ALT