Projected Lineup: Avalanche at Wild (Jan. 31, 2021)

Goaltender Hunter Miska will be between the pipes this evening when the Colorado Avalanche and Minnesota Wild finish up their back-to-back set at Xcel Energy Center.
It will be Miska's second career start and his first in his home state. Born in North Branch, Minnesota--roughly 40 miles north of St. Paul--Miska last played in his home state for the University of Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs in their championship victory at the 2017 NCHC tournament in Minneapolis.

The 25-year-old netminder made his first NHL start on Jan 21 at the Los Angeles Kings, making 23-of-26 saves. He appeared in 26 games for the Colorado Eagles of the American Hockey League last season and went on to post a 16-6-3 record, 2.48 goals-against average and .924 save percentage.
Defenseman Erik Johnson is not expected to play after suffering an upper-body injury in the first period of Saturday's contest, a 5-1 win for the Avs. Greg Pateryn is expected to enter the lineup with Johnson out.
Pateryn spent the past two-plus seasons with the Wild before Colorado acquired the rear guard on Jan. 19. He has skated in three contests with the Avalanche this year, last playing on Jan. 24 at the Anaheim Ducks. Pateryn has played in a total of 273 NHL contests and has 41 points (four goals, 37 assists).
Tonight is the second of four straight and eight overall meetings between the Avalanche and Wild this year. The clubs have played on consecutive nights in the regular season on three occasions, but this will be the first time they do so in the same building. The franchises actually did it once in the postseason during the 2008 Western Conference Quarterfinals when Games 3-4 were on back-to-back nights in Denver (April 14-15, 2008).
Colorado and Minnesota's four-game series will shift back to Ball Arena to wrap up the set on Tuesday and Thursday.
Below is the Avalanche's projected lineup for tonight based on the start of Saturday's contest, with Greg Pateryn slotted into Johnson's previous spot. All forward combinations and defensive pairings are subject to change.
Forwards
92 Gabriel Landeskog - 29 Nathan MacKinnon - 96 Mikko Rantanen
20 Brandon Saad - 91 Nazem Kadri - 95 Andre Burakovsky
13 Valeri Nichushkin - 37 J.T. Compher 7- 2 Joonas Donskoi
44 Kiefer Sherwood - 17 Tyson Jost - 25 Logan O'Connor
Defensemen
49 Samuel Girard - 8 Cale Makar
4 Bowen Byram - 5 Greg Pateryn
27 Ryan Graves - 22 Conor Timmins
Goaltenders
32 Hunter Miska
31 Philipp Grubauer
Injury Report:Pierre-Edouard Bellemare (lower body), Matt Calvert (upper body), Pavel Francouz (lower body), Erik Johnson (lower body), Devon Toews (lower body)
Taxi Squad: Shane Bowers, Sheldon Dries, Jacob MacDonald, Adam Werner