Colorado Avalanche Game Preview: Saturday showdown with the Dallas Stars

The run of important games continues for the Colorado Avalanche, who welcome the Dallas Stars to Ball Arena on Saturday afternoon for a matinee affair. It comes in a run where six of eight games are against Central Division opponents, such as this one.

Dallas has the season advantage over Colorado, where they won 5-3 at the American Airlines Center in late November. The last time the Stars were in Denver, they broke hearts with Colorado looking to reverse its fate from that dramatic May evening.

Colorado Avalanche

The Avalanche also need to reverse fate after blowing a 3-0 lead to the Edmonton Oilers and falling 4-3 on Thursday night. It started off with a near-perfect 18 minutes from Nathan MacKinnon and Mackenzie Blackwood, but it fell off the rails in the final two periods.

Blackwood ended up giving up more than two goals for the first time in an Avs jersey, while MacKinnon’s two-goal night, including his spectacular goal on Evan Bouchard, was spoiled. This afternoon, they’ll need all the help they can get against a solidified Central Division opponent they are right in the running with.

There will be some help this afternoon. After Thursday’s game, Jason Polin was sent down to the Colorado Eagles, and Ivan Ivan was called back up. It signals a return for Valeri Nichushkin from injury is not in the cards yet, but Jared Bednar said he was “getting close.” We’ll find out who is truly in once the teams come out for the warm-up.

Projected Lines

Ross Colton (20) – Nathan MacKinnon (29) – Mikko Rantanen (96)
Artturi Lehkonen (62) – Casey Mittelstadt (37) – Jonathan Drouin (27)
Joel Kiviranta (94) – Ivan Ivan (82) – Logan O’Connor (25)
Jere Innala (22) – Juuso Parssinen (16) – Parker Kelly (17)

Devon Toews (7) – Cale Makar (8)
Sam Girard (49) – Josh Manson (42)
Keaton Middleton (67) – Calvin de Haan (44)

Dallas Stars

Dallas got the same taste of Jakub Dobes and the Montreal Canadiens last night as the Avs did earlier this month. He gave up only one goal in a 3-1 loss to the Habs on home ice on Thursday night.

It barely stopped what has been a great run of form for the visitors, however. They have won eight of their last 10 games, with the only two losses coming to Montreal and the Ottawa Senators.

The Stars are on this quick one-game trip to Colorado, which is the first leg of a back-to-back with the Detroit Red Wings tomorrow evening back in the Lone Star State. But the Stars will be looking to repeat the same magic they had back in May with Matt Duchene and company.

Projected Lines

Jason Robertson (21) – Wyatt Johnston (53) – Evgenii Dadonov (63)
Jamie Benn (14) – Matt Duchene (95) – Logan Stankoven (11)
Sam Steel (18) – Mavrik Bourque (22) – Matej Blumel (25)
Justin Hryckowian (49) – Oskar Back (10) – Colin Blackwell (15)

Miro Hiskanen (4) – Ilya Lybushkin (46)
Esa Lindell (23) – Nils Lundkvist (5)
Thomas Harley (55) – Matt Dumba (3)

Goaltenders

We should expect each team’s number one to go this afternoon: the aforementioned Blackwood for Colorado, and Jake Oettinger for the Stars.