Avalanche Closes Out Road Trip Tuesday

The Colorado Avalanche wraps up a four-game road trip on Tuesday night, taking on the Washington Capitals at Capital One Arena. It's the final meeting of the season between the two teams, who clashed on Nov. 16 at Pepsi Center, where the Avalanche earned a 6-2 win.
Colorado owns a 13-15-2 overall record against the Capitals (since 1995-96) with a 5-8-1 record as the road team in the series.

Last Time Out

Colorado Avalanche
The Avalanche battled to a 2-1 victory over the defending Stanley Cup champions on Monday night at PPG Paints arena. Mark Barberio gave Colorado a 1-0 lead early in the third period and Blake Comeau netted an empty netter to extend the lead to two late in the frame. Phil Kessel's marker with 12 seconds remaining in regulation spoiled Jonathan Bernier's shutout bid, but the goaltender still finished with 39 saves, matching a season high.
Washington Capitals
Washington also played on Monday night, falling to the New York Islanders 3-1 at Barclays Center. The loss marks the first time this season that the Capitals have dropped the first contest of a back-to-back set. Washington trailed 3-0 after 40 minutes, and goaltender Braden Holtby was replaced by Philipp Grubauer after allowing two goals in less than a minute to start the second period. Dmitry Orlov scored in the third stanza to account for the final 3-1 score.

Last Time They Met

Gabriel Landeskog recorded the first hat trick of his career and both Nathan MacKinnon (1g, 4a) and Mikko Rantanen (1g, 3a) also reached career highs for points and assists in a game, as the Avalanche was victorious 6-2 on Nov. 16. Colorado led 2-0 after the first period and 5-1 early in the third en route to the win. The Avs were 2-for-6 on the power play, and Semyon Varlamov finished with 28 saves.

What to Watch

Road Momentum
The Avs' have now won consecutive games on the road for the first time this season and look to extend their win streak to three contests before returning to Pepsi Center to host three of the four teams they've faced on this road trip.
"We've had stretches of games against some real good opponents where we've played well," said head coach Jared Bednar following Monday's win. "Our last homestand, not so much, so we have to keep trying to push that out of each other and take those little steps forward and become more consistent as a team."
Back-to-Backs
For both teams, Tuesday's tilt will be the second game in as many nights. Colorado is in the midst of its seventh back-to-back set of the season and is 2-4-0 in the second game of such sets. The Capitals are playing their sixth set of two games in two nights and owns a 1-4-0 record in the second contest.

Player to Watch

Colorado: Defenseman Erik Johnson
Johnson enters Tuesday's contest on a three-game point streak, accumulating two goals and an assist in that span. He's tallied six points (2g, 4a) in 12 career games against the Capitals, but none of those points have come in Washington's barn.
Washington: Center Nicklas Backstrom
Backstrom has nine points (3g, 6a) in 13 career outings against Colorado but has been held off the scoresheet in the last two meetings of the series. He's one goal shy of passing Dave Christian (193) for seventh place on the franchise's all-time scoring list.

Lineup Notes

Semyon Varlamov will get the start in net for Colorado.
Click here for more on the team's roster for the contest in Washington.

The Details

Tuesday's game begins at 5 p.m. MT and can be watched live on Altitude TV. The radio broadcast can be heard on Altitude Sports Radio AM950 or online at ColoradoAvalanche.com.