Colorado Begins Back-To-Back Set In St. Louis

The Colorado Avalanche continues its two-game road trip on Thursday as it takes on the St. Louis Blues. This will be the fourth meeting between the two clubs this season and the third and final outing at Scottrade Center. The series concludes in the Mile High City on April 7 and serves as each squad's last contest of the 2017-18 regular season.
Thursday is the first half of a back-to-back for the Avalanche, as it hosts the Nashville Predators on Friday night at Pepsi Center.

Colorado is 37-24-8 this campaign and has gone 13-16-6 when being the visiting team. St. Louis has a 37-27-5 record and is 20-14-0 in its friendly confines this season. The Blues trail the Avs by three points in the race for a Western Conference wild-card positions.
Since moving to Colorado in 1995-96, the Avalanche owns a 45-35-10 record over the Blues but is 18-22-4 in St. Louis.

Last Time Out

The Avalanche finished off its season series against the Minnesota Wild with a 5-1 win on Tuesday behind 33 saves from goaltender Semyon Varlamov. The Avs took a 1-0 advantage into the first intermission behind J.T. Compher's first of two tallies on the night, and each team found the back of the net during a 4-on-4 situation in the second period. Nathan Mackinnon lit the lamp 11 seconds into the third frame for his 33rd goal of the year. Compher and Tyson Jost each netted a power-play goal in the closing minutes to secure the Avs the victory. Nikita Zadorov also scored, which ended up being his first game-winning goal as a member of the Avalanche.
The St. Louis Blues defeated the Anaheim Ducks 4-2 on Monday in a match they never trailed in. Four different skaters lit the lamp for St. Louis, and goalie Jake Allen made 20 saves in the crease. Vladimir Sobotka scored the game-winning goal in the second period for his 10th tally of the campaign.

Last Time They Met

Colorado fell to St. Louis for the third time this season on Feb. 8. The Blues got on the scoreboard in the first period and held a 1-0 lead until Gabriel Bourque knotted the match with a marker 2:50 into the second period. St. Louis went on to score four unanswered goals in the remainder of the middle stanza and added one more in the final frame to win 6-1.

What To Watch

Playoff Picture
The win over the Wild on Tuesday pushed the Avs into the first wild-card position in the Western Conference. After the Dallas Stars won on Wednesday, Colorado is now in the second spot, one point behind Dallas but has two games in hand over the Stars. The Avs trail Minnesota by three points for the third place in the Central Division and a guaranteed playoff spot.
St. Louis is three points out of a wild-card spot with 79 points but don't have any games in hand over Colorado. The Blues have gone 3-6-1 in their last 10 contests.
March Madness
The Avalanche is 5-0-3 during an eight-game point streak, which includes all six contests so far in the month of March. Colorado has allowed two or fewer goals in six of those games and has netted a goal on the man advantage in all eight outings. The club has only allowed two power-play goals on 20 short-handed situations during the calendar month.
Mikko Rantanen has a point in seven of the eight games in the chain, totaling 14 points (four goals, 10 assists) over that time. Tyson Barrie is on a career-high seven-game point streak in which he's tallied 10 points (four goals, six assists) and MacKinnon extended his point streak to nine games (eight goals, nine assists), tying a season high that was previously set Dec. 29 to Jan. 20.

Player To Watch

Colorado: Defenseman Nikita Zadorov
Nikita Zadorov has seven goals and 12 assists for 19 points in 64 contests this season. Of the blueliner's seven goals, three of them have come in the last seven games. He averages 19:09 of ice time and leads Colorado by a significant margin with 210 hits this season, 94 more than his next closest teammate.
St. Louis: Defenseman Alex Pietrangelo
Alex Pietrangelo has tallied 12 goals and 31 assists for 43 points this campaign. The blueliner is fourth in team scoring and first among defenseman in points for the Blues. He has recorded two consecutive multi-point games this week and leads St. Louis in ice time, averaging 25:35 in three games

Lineup Notes

The Avalanche didn't practice on Wednesday in St. Louis after traveling from Minnesota the night before. Colorado is expected to have goaltender Semyon Varlamov back in net for Thursday's contest. It will be Varlamov's second consecutive start and 15th game in a row.

The Details

Puck drop for Thursday's contest is slated for 6 p.m. MT. The game can be watched live locally on Altitude 2 and the radio broadcast can be heard on Altitude Sports Radio AM 950 and ColoradoAvalanche.com.