Avalanche at Wild preview

AVALANCHE (36-24-8) at WILD (39-23-7)
8:30 p.m. ET; NBCSN, NHL.TV

Colorado holds the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the West, two points behind the Dallas Stars for the first wild card and five points behind Minnesota, which is third in the Central Division.
Devan Dubnyk, who is looking for his 200th NHL career win, will make his sixth straight start for Minnesota which is 3-1-0 in its past four games and 8-3-0 in its past 11. The Wild are seven points behind the Winnipeg Jets for second in the division.
Semyon Varlamov will start for the Avalanche, who are 4-0-3 in their past seven and have allowed two goals or fewer in five of those games.

Players to watch

Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon has 16 points (seven goals, nine assists) in an eight-game point streak and 41 points (17 goals, 24 assists) in his past 24 games.
Wild center Eric Staal has 31 points (18 goals, 13 assists) in his past 24 games and is fourth in the NHL in goals with 37 (Alex Ovechkin, Washington Capitals, 42; Patrik Laine, Jets, 41; Evgeni Malkin, Pittsburgh Penguins 39).

They said it

"There's a confidence about our group at home. Our challenge is to make sure we're transferring that in to our road games and that will be a key for us tonight to start." -- Avalanche coach Jared Bednar
"We haven't matched up well against [Colorado] at all. We haven't done anything good, we won in a shootout and we've gotten our butts kicked [7-1 and 7-2], so we have to change some things and hopefully we will tonight." -- Wild coach Bruce Boudreau

Avalanche projected lineup

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

Wild projected lineup

Jason Zucker -- Eric Staal -- Mikael Granlund
Zach Parise -- Mikko Koivu -- Charlie Coyle
Nino Niederreiter -- Joel Eriksson Ek -- Tyler Ennis
Daniel Winnik -- Matt Cullen -- Marcus Foligno
Ryan Suter -- Jared Spurgeon
Jonas Brodin -- Matt Dumba
Nick Seeler -- Nate Prosser
Devan Dubnyk
Alex Stalock
Scratched: Gustav Olofsson
Injured: Luke Kunin (knee)

Status report

Bernier skated but there is still no timetable for his return. Martin was recalled from San Antonio of the American Hockey League on Sunday. … Seeler returns after missing three games with a right bicep strain.

Stat pack

Barrie has nine points (four goals, five assists) in a six-game point streak and 15 points (five goals, 10 assists) in his past 10 games. The Avalanche have scored a power-play goal in seven consecutive games. … Granlund has 13 points (four goals, nine assists) in his past 10 games. ... Zucker has 11 points (three goals, eight assists) in the past nine games.