Game 35 Preview: Maple Leafs @ Avalanche

The Avalanche are on a roll. They cruised past the Oilers Saturday night behind another 39 saves by Semyon Varlamov. The win gave the Avs their fifth straight victory and places them over .500 for the first time this season. The Avs are playing their best hockey of the season right now, but shots against remains a concern. Though Varlamov is looking like his Vezina caliber self of late, the heavy workload can be cause for concern for a player that has been battling a groin injury for the last year and a half. Varlamov and the Avs have a six day break to look forward to after Monday night's game though.

The opponent Monday night is the Toronto Maple Leafs. Like the Avs, the Leafs have a five game streak of picking up at least a point going. Despite the streak, the Leafs still sit tied for the league low in points at the moment. Part of the season for the Leafs' recent success is the resurgence of goaltender Jonathan Bernier. Bernier who has had a rough start to his season has played the Leafs' last three outings and picked up his first win of the season Saturday when he shutout his old team, the Los Angeles Kings. The Avs will look to break Bernier and the Leafs' recent success and get revenge from a 5-1 loss in Toronto back on November 17th.

LINES

Landeskog-MacKinnon-Duchene

Tanguay-Mitchell-Iginla

Martinsen-Soderberg-Comeau

McLeod-Grigorenko-Skille

Beauchemin-Johnson

Holden-Barrie

Guenin-Redmond

Varlamov

Berra

NOTES

- Varlamov has won his last six starts.

- The Maple Leafs have scored the fewest road power play goals of any team in the NHL.

- While the Avs have often gotten the first goal of the game this year, they may want to let the Leafs do it this time. The Leafs have the fewest wins in the NHL when scoring first.

GAME INFO

Game time: 7pm MT

TV: ALT