Colorado Avalanche Game Day: Time to get lucky in Vegas

After an incredibly entertaining game on Saturday, the Colorado Avalanche and Vegas Golden Knights faceoff again tonight in what is looking more and more like a first round playoff preview.

The Avalanche were able to get a valuable two points at home, winning the game 2-1 in a shootout.

When the schedule as released, this probably looked like it would be a game between two bad teams with an eye on the end of the season. Now it’s a game with major playoff implications for both teams.

With a one point lead on the first wildcard spot, the Avalanche will be looking for another big win to gain some breathing room in the very tight race. Dallas and Calgary have fallen out of the picture, but the Kings and Blues leave three teams separated by only a single point.

Vegas is looking to clinch a playoff spot for the third straight game. A single point - or a loss by the Los Angeles Kings - will put the Golden Knights into the playoffs.

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Colorado Avalanche

Carl Soderberg scored in his return to the lineup Saturday. It was a good sign from the checking center that had missed the previous two games with an illness. With Alex Kerfoot and J.T. Compher assisting on the lone goal, it meant an end to the point streaks for both Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen. Oh well, time to start new ones.

Projected Lineup

Gabriel Landeskog - Nathan MacKinnon - Mikko Rantanen

Tyson Jost - J.T. Compher - Alex Kerfoot

Matt Nieto - Carl Soderberg - Blake Comeau

Dominic Toninato - Gabriel Bourque

Nikita Zadorov - Tyson Barrie

Patrik Nemeth - Erik Johnson

Anton Lindholm - Samuel Girard

Mark Alt

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Vegas Golden Knights

For Vegas, it’s time to start scoring again. The Golden Knights have scored only one goal in each of their past two games. William Karlsson needs one more goal to get to 40, Jonathan Marchesseault needs one more to get to 25. Maybe they’ll get them tonight. Let’s hope they don’t.

Projected Lineup:

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Starting Goalies

After a great performance Saturday afternoon, Semon Varlamov is going to her another start tonight. With a 39 save performance, Varly raised his season sv% up to .919.

There hasn’t been any confirmation yet, but sounds like Marc-Andre Fleury will be in net for the Golden Knights. Fleury is 27-11-4 on the season with an incredible .930 sv%.