Colorado Avalanche Gameday: Dusting dirt in the desert again

The Avalanche: (10-6-1)

The Opponent: Arizona Coyotes (9-8-3)

Puck Drop: 7:00 PM MT

Watch: Altitude, ESPN+, FSAZ

Listen: Altitude 92.5, AM 950

The Avalanche return 24 hours later to face off against the Arizona Coyotes. After a big bounce-back win last night, the Avalanche will look to get two of two games against the Yotes and continue to climb up the standings.

Colorado Avalanche

The Avalanche have regained their footing a bit after their two-game losing streak was snapped Friday night. Jared Bednar even admitted that having fans in the stands helped push on the team to victory. The team will be looking for the fans energy to push them on again.

Nazem Kadri had himself a big night last night, with three points, including the game-winning goal to make it 3-0 halfway through the third. Bowen Byram also had his first fight last night after a scrum in front of Hunter Miska. He will now be looking to finally get his first goal for the Avalanche, and some magic in the desert might just make it happen.

After Matt Calvert was a late scratch from last night’s match due to a upper-body injury, the Avalanche will most likely bring in Logan O’Connor from the taxi squad to fill his role on the fourth line.

Projected Lines

Gabriel Landeskog - Nathan MacKinnon - Mikko Rantanen

Brandon Saad - Nazem Kadri - Andre Burakovsky

Joonas Donskoi - J.T. Compher - Valeri Nichushkin

Tyson Jost - P.E. Bellemare - Logan O’Connor

Devon Toews - Cale Makar

Bowen Byram - Samuel Girard

Ryan Graves - Jacob MacDonald

Phillip Grubauer

Hunter Miska

Arizona Coyotes

The Coyotes are looking to rebound after falling behind early and not quite being able to come back from 3-0 down last night. The Yotes made it interesting, scoring two goals in the final two minutes to make it close and test Hunter Miska to earn his first career win against his former club.

The Coyotes will continue to play their frustrating game of consistent forechecking and pressure the Avs into making a mistake, as it lead to their best chances of the game last night. With Darcy Kuemper out injured, Avs fans will be relieved of not seeing him in this series, where he played a pivotal role in keeping games close in the bubble playoffs last season.

After nearly coming back from 3-0 down in their last two games, the Coyotes will look to start stronger than they have their last two games against the Ducks and Avalanche respectively. If they fall behind, the Yotes will work their magic and try to get back in the game like their previous matchups. Both sides will be looking for a quick start to get ahead early in this game.

Projected Lines

Clayton Keller — Nick Schmaltz — Conor Garland

Lawson Crouse — Christian Dvorak — Tyler Pitlick

Drake Caggiula — Derick Brassard — Phil Kessel

Christian Fischer — Johan Larsson — John Hayden

Oliver Ekman-Larsson — Ilya Lyubushkin

Jakob Chychrun — Alex Goligoski

Jordan Oesterle — Niklas Hjalmarsson

Antti Raanta

Adin Hill

Starting Goalies

After both got the night off last night, the Avalanche will most likely go with Phillip Grubauer in net to face off against Antti Raanta for the Coyotes.

The Avalanche will be looking to get the maximum four points out of Arizona in front of the Avs faithful that made the trip to Arizona. Get loud for us down there, Avs fans! Let’s go Avs!