If the Colorado Avalanche have any intention of catching the Dallas Stars for the top spot in the Central Division, a win on the road in Minnesota is essential.
With a dominant win over the Oilers last night, the Stars moved five points ahead of the Avalanche in the standings. Why does this game matter so much for Colorado? It’s their game in hand. A loss tonight would make a five point gap tough to overcome with just six games remaining, so they’ll have to be ready to go.
Justus Annunen is scheduled to start in net for Colorado, and Alexandar Georgiev will go tomorrow against the Edmonton Oilers. Make no mistake that Georgiev is still the starter on this team, but the schedule worked out where Annunen would start two of the three games on the road trip.
Valeri Nichushkin has been skating back in Denver, and skated again Thursday morning, but will not play against the Wild. The hope is that he can play against the Oilers, but that depends on how he feels. Yakov Trenin also will not play on Thursday, but he may play against the Oilers as well.
As always, the player to watch on the Wild is Kirill Kaprizov. He leads the Wild with 83 points and has been particularly deadly on the powerplay.
Expected Colorado Avalanche Lines
Jonathan Drouin – Nathan MacKinnon – Mikko Rantanen
Brandon Duhaime – Casey Mittelstadt – Artturi Lehkonen
Miles Wood – Ross Colton – Zach Parise
Jean-Luc Foudy – – Chris Wagner – Andrew Cogliano
Defense
Devon Toews – Cale Makar
Samuel Girard – Josh Manson
Jack Johnson – Sean Walker
Starting Goaltender
Justus Annunen
Expected Minnesota Wild Lines
Kaprizov – Eriksson-Ek – Boldy
Johansson – Rossi – Zuccarello
Beckman – Khusnutdinov – Gaudreau
Shaw – Lucchini – Lettieri
Defense
Middleton – Faber
Brodin – Bogosian
Merrill – Chisholm
Starting Goaltender
Filip Gustavsson
Special Teams
Colorado Avalanche Power Play: 24.9%, 6th in NHL
Colorado Avalanche Penalty Kill: 82.4%, 6th in NHL
Minnesota Wild Power Play: 21.1%, 16th in NHL
Minnesota Wild Penalty Kill: 74.3%,29th in NHL
How to Watch
TV: ESPN+, Altitude TV
Radio: 950 AM
Game Time: 6:00 PM MST