Avs Get Ready For Road Trip

CENTENNIAL, Colo--After one game at home against the Arizona Coyotes on Saturday, the Colorado Avalanche heads back on the road for a two-game road trip against Central Division foes.
The Avs had a full practice at Family Sports Center on Monday before going to the airport. The Avalanche plays at the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday and then wraps up the quick trip at the St. Louis Blues on Thursday in the first half of a back-to-back set.

Tuesday's contest will be the fourth and final time Colorado faces Minnesota this season. The Avalanche is 2-0-1 against the Wild and has outscored its division rival 16-6 in the three contests, including by a combined 14-3 margin in the last two games, both occurring at Pepsi Center.
"We came out and had a really good start, something we have talked about a lot but we seem to feed off of a good start," Gabriel Landeskog said of the last time the Avs and Wild met. "We expect these guys to come out hard, and they are going to want to play a lot better than they did in our building. I am sure they want to show us that they are not ready to give up a playoff spot to us. It's going to be a fun game."
Minnesota holds the third spot in the Central Division standings and has five more points than Colorado, but the Avalanche has played one less game.
"It's huge, right now in the standings, it is going to be a key game for us to come hard and win that game," said Gabriel Bourque. "Just play simple, just do your thing, just work hard and be patient and the goals are going to come… It's a playoff run, so every time we play, we need to win. We need to be focused and go get the most points we can."
The Avs are in the second wild-card position in the west with 14 games remaining in the season, and all but two of those are against Western Conference opponents.
The Blues are fighting for their playoff lives, three points behind the Avalanche with the same number of contests played. St. Louis is 2-6-2 in its last 10 games and will be a desperate team.
"You work the whole year to make sure you finish off and you are on the right side of the line when you look at the standings at the end of the year, it is exciting," said Landeskog. "This is the best time of year, and now we got 14 games to go. We just got to make sure we really bear down here, and we are smart and really put it all together."
After the Avs wrap up their journey at the Blues on Thursday night, the team will come back to Denver to host the Central Division-leading Nashville Predators on Friday to finish the back-to-back set.

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Colorado's Semyon Varlamov will be between the pipes at Minnesota, marking the 14th straight contest that he has appeared in for the Avs.
"He has been great. He had some time off when he re-tweaked his groin there midseason," said Bednar. "Gave him three weeks or so off, and he's been getting lots of rest on practice days. So, looks good, feels good. Not a problem there for him carrying the load right now."
He entered the Avalanche's game against the Arizona Coyotes with 12:33 remaining after Jonathan Bernier left the contest with a head injury.
"He got hit in the head with a shot there the other day," said Bednar of Bernier. "He is feeling a lot better today, so we will just see how long this takes him. It's hard to say."
Bernier did not practice on Monday, but Andrew Hammond was on the ice before the session began and did some skating drills with goaltending coach Jussi Parkkila. Hammond has been out with a head injury of his own since Feb. 26.