At the Rink: Avalanche at Wild

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- The Minnesota Wild activated defenseman Jared Spurgeon from injured reserve ahead of their game against the Colorado Avalanche at Xcel Energy Center on Sunday.

Spurgeon has missed the past eight games with an upper-body injury, believed to be concussion-like symptoms.

The Wild have gone 7-1-0 without Spurgeon in the lineup, but his return will certainly help Minnesota, which enters the day one point ahead of the Winnipeg Jets for the top wild-card spot in the Western Conference for the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Wild trails the Chicago Blackhawks by four points for third place in the Central Division standings.

Spurgeon is second among Wild defensemen with seven goals this season and third with 18 points. He is a plus-1.

With an early 5 p.m. local time start, neither team skated Sunday morning.

Colorado arrived in the Twin Cities late Saturday night after a 4-0 victory against the Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena. Goaltender Semyon Varlamov made 44 saves for his fifth shutout, a new career high.

Varlamov has started 21 consecutive games for the Avalanche, but Reto Berra is expected to start Sunday. Devan Dubnyk, expected to get the nod for Minnesota, has started 23 straight games.

Here are the projected lineups:

AVALANCHE

Gabriel Landeskog - Ryan O'Reilly - Cody McLeod

Jordan Caron - Matt Duchene - Jarome Iginla

Alex Tanguay - John Mitchell - Dennis Everberg

Marc-Andre Cliche - Freddie Hamilton - Daniel Briere

Nate Guenin - Tyson Barrie

Jan Hejda - Zach Redmond

Brad Stuart - Nick Holden

Reto Berra

Semyon Varlamov

Scratched: None

Injured: Nathan MacKinnon (broken foot), Patrick Bordeleau (fractured kneecap), Erik Johnson (knee), Jamie McGinn (back surgery), Borna Rendulic (broken leg), Ryan Wilson (shoulder), Jesse Winchester (concussion), Joey Hishon (neck)

WILD

Zach Parise - Mikael Granlund - Jason Pominville

Nino Niederreiter - Mikko Koivu - Chris Stewart

Thomas Vanek - Charlie Coyle - Jordan Schroeder

Erik Haula - Kyle Brodziak - Justin Fontaine

Ryan Suter - Jonas Brodin

Jared Spurgeon - Matt Dumba

Nate Prosser - Christian Folin

Devan Dubnyk

Darcy Kuemper

Scratched: Sean Bergenheim, Jordan Leopold, Niklas Backstrom

Injured: Jason Zucker (clavicle), Marco Scandella (undisclosed), Ryan Carter (upper body), Matt Cooke (sports hernia), Keith Ballard (concussion/facial fractures)

Status report: Scandella could return later this week from an undisclosed injury.

Who's hot: Iginla has a goal in each of the past two games and three of four. He is the all-time leader in goals (37), points (67) and game-winning goals (10) against the Wild. ... Granlund had a goal and an assist against the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday and has four multi-point games in his past 11 games. He has 11 points (2-9-11) during that span.