Colorado Avalanche Game Day: Let’s go back to back

After a great come from behind win Friday night, the Colorado Avalanche will look to make it two in a row against the last place Anaheim Ducks this evening.

The Ducks jumped out to a 2-0 lead early in the game, only to have the Avalanche storm back for a 3-2 victory thanks to a tremendous game from Val Nichushkin. Not only was he the one to break John Gibson’s shutout bid late in the second period, Nichushkin scored the game winner in overtime. With Nathan MacKinnon out of the lineup, the Avalanche needed the middle-6 to step up in a big way - and they did.

Even while they were trailing, the Avalanche completely dominated the game and will hope for more of the same tonight.

The Avs will look to continue that momentum to sweep the series with Anaheim

Colorado Avalanche

Despite looking like he was going to play all day, Nathan MacKinnon was a late scratch from the lineup Friday night. Apparently he didn’t feel well after the morning skate and Jared Bednar is now saying he assumes MacKinnon will “miss some time” as he battles through what is obviously a concussion.

MacKinnon isn’t expected to play today.

With MacKinnon back in the lineup, Nazem Kadri was moved up to the first line and Keifer Sherwood was inserted back into the lineup. Both looked good in their roles Friday night.

The line of Nichushkin, Compher and Donskoi were the catalyst for the turn around in the game while Tyson Jost bounced back from a bad first period to be one of the team’s best players over the final 40 minutes.

Bo Byram and Cale Makar will continue to be out of the lineup as they nurse injuries.

Projected Lineup

Gabriel Landeskog - Nazem Kadri - Mikko Rantanen

Brandon Saad - Tyson Jost - Andre Burakovsky

Valeri Nichushkin - J.T. Compher - Joonas Donskoi

Logan O’Connor - Pierre-Edouard Bellemare - Keifer Sherwood

Devon Toews - Ryan Graves

Jacob MacDonald - Samuel Girard

Daniel Renouf - Conor Timmins

Anaheim Ducks

After a late first period goal and another very early in the second, the Ducks were not able to muster any more offense. An already weak forward group was hampered by the fact that coach Dallas Eakins decided to go with seven defensemen.

Despite the score, the Ducks were clearly outmatched in the first game and will look to muster up a better effort this evening - easier said than done.

Projected Lineup

Max Comtois - Ryan Getzlaf - Troy Terry

Max Jones - Adam Henrique - Jakob Silfverberg

Trevor Zegras - Isac Lundestrom - Rickard Rakell

Sam Steel - Derek Grant

Josh Mahura - Kevin Shattenkirk

Cam Folwer - Jani Hakanpaa

Ben Hutton - Jacob Larsson

Josh Manson

Starting Goalies

With Philipp Grubauer and John Gibson in net last night, we should expect to see Hunter Miska and Ryan Miller today.