Avalanche at Kings preview

AVALANCHE (42-28-9) at KINGS (43-28-8)
10:30 p.m. ET; PRIME, ALT, SN1, SN, NHL.TV

A victory would also put the Kings, who hold the first wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference and trail the idle Anaheim Ducks by one point, two points behind the second-place San Jose Sharks.
The Avalanche lead the St. Louis Blues, who play the Washington Capitals on Tuesday and have a game in hand, by one point for the second wild card from the West and are one point behind the Kings. They earned a point for the sixth time in their past seven road games (3-1-3) after a 4-3 overtime loss to the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday.

Players to watch

Kings center Anze Kopitar has four points (two goals, two assists) during a three-game point streak. He has 15 points (seven goals, eight assists) in his past 10 games.
Avalanche forward Tyson Jost has three goals in his past two games. Jost scored twice against the Ducks for his first NHL multigoal game.

They said it

"You look at the goals he's scored, it doesn't come in one area. He's scored goals in the blue paint, he's scored goals on the rush, he's scored goals off the forecheck. He puts himself in scoring areas." -- Kings coach John Stevens on center Jeff Carter, who has five goals in his past four games
"I've been in net for a long time before this game, so just got to make sure I'm staying physically ready and just hit the reset button." -- Avalanche goalie Jonathan Bernier on starting back-to-back games during the playoff race

Avalanche projected lineup

Gabriel Landeskog -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Mikko Rantanen
Sven Andrighetto -- Alex Kerfoot -- Tyson Jost
Matt Nieto -- Carl Soderberg -- Blake Comeau
Gabriel Bourque -- J.T. Compher -- Nail Yakupov
Nikita Zadorov -- Tyson Barrie
Patrik Nemeth -- Samuel Girard
David Warsofsky -- Mark Alt
Jonathan Bernier
Andrew Hammond
Scratched:Duncan Siemens, Dominic Toninato, Anton Lindholm, Vladislav Kamenev
Injured: Semyon Varlamov (knee), Erik Johnson (knee), Colin Wilson (lower body)

Kings projected lineup

Tanner Pearson -- Anze Kopitar -- Dustin Brown
Tobias Rieder -- Jeff Carter -- Tyler Toffoli
Kyle Clifford -- Adrian Kempe --Trevor Lewis
Nate Thompson -- Michael Amadio -- Torrey Mitchell
Derek Forbort -- Drew Doughty
Alec Martinez -- Christian Folin
Dion Phaneuf -- Paul LaDue
Jonathan Quick
Jack Campbell
Scratched:Andy Andreoff, Kevin Gravel
Injured:Alex Iafallo (upper body), Jake Muzzin (upper body)

Status report

Iafallo remains day to day after he did not practice Monday. Stevens is hopeful Iafallo could return against the Minnesota Wild on Thursday.

Stat pack

The Avalanche are 3-7-0 in the second game of a back-to-back. … Brown has eight points (two goals, six assists) in his past seven games.