Stakes rise as Blues, Avalanche meet on Thursday

ST. LOUIS - With a spot in the Stanley Cup Playoffs hanging in the balance, the games just seem to keep getting bigger and bigger.
Thursday's matchup between the St. Louis Blues and Colorado Avalanche (7 p.m., FSMW, FSGO, KMOX) is no exception to that.
The Avalanche own the second Wild Card spot in the Western Conference with 82 points in 69 games. The Blues, who also have played 69 games, sit just three points back and could close that gap to one with a victory on Thursday.
"We've still got a lot of work to do," Blues Head Coach Mike Yeo said after Monday's win against the Ducks. "We're still on the outside looking in, but a little bit closer."

THE MATCHUP

BLUES The Blues seem to be finding their stride. going 2-1-0 on their road trip to the West Coast. Seven different players scored Saturday in a 7-2 rout of the Los Angeles Kings before Robert Bortuzzo, Ivan Barbashev, Vladimir Sobotka and Patrik Berglund scored to secure a 4-2 win against the Anaheim Ducks on Monday.
The Blues will have a chance at a third consecutive victory on Thursday vs. Colorado.
"We're still in a dog fight," said Blues goalie Jake Allen, who posted a 1.68 goals-against average and a .948 save-percentage on the California road trip. "A lot of people counted us out with Jay Bouwmeester gone and Paul Stastny gone and Scottie Upshall gone. But we still have a lot of pride in here and we're going to fight until the end.
"If we get in, we get in. If we don't, we don't - but we're going to go down swinging. That was the mentality coming into this (West Coast trip)," Allen added. "If we went 0-3 on the trip, we might have had our backs against the wall and it might be too late. But two big wins - we're still not there but it keeps us in the race."
The
Blues will also get defenseman Joel Edmundson back in the lineup
. Edmundson suffered a broken forearm on Feb. 8 but has been skating with the team.

AVALANCHE J.T. Compher scored two goals and Semyon Varlamov made 33 saves on Tuesday to hand the Minnesota Wild a 5-1 defeat at Xcel Energy Center.
The win catapulted the Avalanche to the West's top Wild Card position at the time and extended their point streak to eight consecutive games (5-0-3).
"It's not easy, especially in our division, playing against teams that you need points against every night," Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon told NHL.com. "They're all three-point games, but we've done a good job of it and hopefully we can keep it going the last 13 games."
"You know what your schedule looks like moving forward, but it has to be one game at a time and for us, we've talked about it for weeks now, it's playoff hockey every time we go out there on the ice," added Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog. "We're playing for the season. We've done a good job putting ourselves in position here coming down the stretch, and now it's a matter of keep climbing."
HEAD-TO-HEAD The Blues have won all three matchups against the Avalanche this season, including a 6-1 win in the last meeting on Feb. 8 in St. Louis. Overall, the Blues have won four straight games against Colorado and have points in 12 straight (9-0-3).
The Blues have scored at least one power-play goal in six of their last seven games against the Avalanche and haven't given up a power play goal to Colorado in the last eight games between the clubs at Scottrade Center (22-for-22).

HOT VS. COLORADO

• Alex Pietrangelo has a three-game point streak (one goal, four assists)
  - Brayden Schenn has eight points in his last nine games (five goals, three assists)
  - Patrik Berglund has five points in his last six games (three goals, two assists)
  - Alexander Steen has three points in his last two games (one goal, two assists)
  - Ivan Barbashev has three points in five career games (one goal, two assists)
  - Jake Allen is 5-0-2 with a 1.54 goals-against average, a .947 save-percentage and one shutout in his last seven starts against Colorado

BLUE NOTES

• Bortuzzo has scored in back-to-back games for the first time in his NHL career.
  - Barbashev has recorded five points in his last four games to set a new career-high of 13 points.
  - Seven of the Blues' final 13 games will come against teams in a playoff spot or within two points of a playoff spot.
  - The Blues will
  honor goalie Nicole Hensley before the game
  . Hensley, a former Lindenwood hockey goaltender, won a gold medal with Team USA at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. Fans will be able to view Hensley's medal outside Section 114.