Game 4 Projected Lineup: Avalanche at Stars

The Colorado Avalanche aims to even up its series against the Dallas Stars this afternoon in the Stanley Cup Playoffs Second Round.
Today's Game 4 marks the first half of a back-to-back set for the clubs, the first time in Avs history (since 1995-96) that the team has played on consecutive days multiple times in a playoff year. Colorado split its first back-to-back in Games 2-3 in Round 1 versus the Arizona Coyotes.

The Avalanche did not hold a morning skate today, so the club's exact lineup won't be known until closer to game time. However, Colorado isn't expected to make any changes to its personnel following the 6-4 victory in Game 3 on Wednesday that cut the Stars' lead in the best-of-seven series to 2-1.
Defenseman Nikita Zadorov is expected to play for the Avs after leaving in the second period with an injury of Game 3. Head coach Jared Bednar said on Saturday that Colorado's injured group that includes forwards Matt Calvert and Joonas Donskoi, defenseman Erik Johnson and goalie Philipp Grubauer likely won't play after not taking part in the team's practice on Saturday.
Goaltender Pavel Francouz will make his third start in the series after stopping 33 shots on Wednesday.
Below is the Avalanche's projected lineup for this afternoon contest based on the start of Game 3. All forward combinations and defensive pairings are subject to change.
Forwards
92 Gabriel Landeskog - 29 Nathan MacKinnon - 96 Mikko Rantanen
95 Andre Burakovsky - 91 Nazem Kadri - 13 Valeri Nichushkin
17 Tyson Jost - 37 J.T. Compher - 90 Vladislav Namestnikov
83 Matt Nieto - 41 Pierre-Edouard Bellemare - 25 Logan O'Connor
Defensemen
28 Ian Cole - 8 Cale Makar
16 Nikita Zadorov - 49 Samuel Girard
27 Ryan Graves - 7 Kevin Connauton
Goaltenders
39 Pavel Francouz
35 Michael Hutchinson
The Dallas Stars aren't expected to make any changes to their lineup for Game 4.
Defenseman Miro Heiskanen took a big hit late in Wednesday's contest, but interim head coach Rick Bowness expects the second-year player to take the ice with the squad this afternoon.
Goaltender Ben Bishop and defenseman Stephen Johns remain unfit to play, but Bishop has started staking again. Netminder Anton Khudobin will make his eighth straight start.
Below is the Stars' projected lineup, courtesy of
DallasStars.com
.
Forwards
14 Jamie Benn - 91 Tyler Seguin - 47 Alexander Radulov
13 Mattias Janmark - 16 Joe Pavelski - 34 Denis Gurianov
11 Andrew Cogliano - 12 Radek Faksa - 15 Blake Comeau
18 Jason Dickinson - 24 Roope Hintz - 10 Corey Perry
Defensemen
23 Esa Lindell - 3 John Klingberg
2 Jamie Oleksiak - 4 Miro Heiskanen
5 Andrej Sekera - 42 Taylor Fedun
Goaltenders
35 Anton Khudobin
29 Jake Oettinger