The Colorado Avalanche look to avenge a rare lopsided loss when they visit the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday.
On March 16, the Penguins handed the Avalanche a 7-2 blowout in Denver. It was only the Avalanche’s sixth regulation loss at home this season and their largest margin of defeat.
Gabriel Landeskog missed that game as part of a seven-game absence due to a lower-body injury. In his return to action Sunday, the Avalanche captain scored Colorado’s first goal in a 3-2 overtime victory over the Washington Capitals.
“You need a big goal in a situation, and (Landeskog) just has a knack for making a play when you need it, whether it’s on the offensive side or the defensive side,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said.
Colorado is 37-4-7 with Landeskog in the lineup and just 9-9-3 without him.
The Avalanche (46-13-10, 102 points) lead the NHL in points and have clinched a playoff berth, though the club is only five points ahead of the Dallas Stars for the Central Division lead.
Pittsburgh (35-19-16, 86 points) has a much more fragile hold on a playoff spot. The Penguins are second in the Metropolitan Division but just one point ahead of both the Columbus Blue Jackets and the New York Islanders, and two points from falling out of a wild-card position in the Eastern Conference.
With the playoff race so tight, the Penguins picked a bad time for a letdown in Sunday’s 5-1 home loss to the Carolina Hurricanes. Pittsburgh never led, and its normally elite penalty-kill unit allowed goals on three of five Hurricanes power plays.
“I don’t think we had the best legs today … We were playing the game a bit slowish, (which) caused us to turn the puck over a lot,” forward Bryan Rust said. “Anytime you do that, especially against a team like that, it’s going to be a recipe for an unhappy night.”
Despite the breakdown, the Penguins still rank second in the NHL with an 83.2% penalty-kill rate. The Avalanche are right behind at 82.8, but Colorado’s weakness is a struggling power play with a 16.5% conversion rate that ranks near the bottom of the league.
Sidney Crosby leads the Penguins in goals (28) and points (63).
Rust has 11 points (five goals, six assists) during a seven-game point streak.
Because Stuart Skinner started against Carolina, Arturs Silovs should be back in Pittsburgh’s net Tuesday. Silovs is 16-9-8 with an .894 save percentage and a 2.92 goals against average this season, and he stopped 25 of 27 Avalanche shots on March 16.
Mackenzie Blackwood has gotten wins in each of Colorado’s last two games, though Scott Wedgewood could be due for another start Tuesday given the team’s usual goalie rotation.
Nathan MacKinnon tops the NHL with 45 goals and leads Colorado in assists (69) and points (114).
Since the Olympic break, MacKinnon hasn’t even been the brightest star on his own team. Martin Necas is second in the NHL with 24 points since the league’s hiatus, and MacKinnon is third with 21.
Penguins defenseman Ryan Shea is day-to-day after missing Sunday’s game with an upper-body injury. The same type of injury has kept forward Ross Colton out of the Avalanche’s last six games, and he is questionable for Tuesday.
