Avalanche Continues Homestand Against Vegas

The Colorado Avalanche continues its three-game homestand against the Vegas Golden Knights on Monday. It is the second of three meetings between the clubs and the first of two that will be played at Pepsi Center as Vegas will return to the Mile High City for the series finale on March 27.
Colorado is 0-1-0 against Vegas this season and finished 1-2-0 in 2017-18, the Golden Knights' inaugural campaign.

Last Time Out

Colorado opened its homestand with a 3-0 loss to the St. Louis Blues on Saturday afternoon. The Avs held the Blues scoreless on three power-play opportunities but also finished scoreless on each of their three man-advantage chances. Semyon Varlamov finished with 30 saves.
Vegas snapped a three-game losing streak on Saturday, topping the Nashville Predators 5-1 at T-Mobile Arena to close out a four-game homestand. Max Pacioretty scored two goals and Malcolm Subban made 29 saves for Vegas, which now has a nine-point lead on the Vancouver Canucks for third place in the Pacific Division.

Last Time They Met

Vegas won the first meeting between the clubs 2-1 on Dec. 27 at T-Mobile Arena. J.T. Compher got the Avs on the board first in the opening period and the game was tied at the first intermission. At the midway point of the third frame, Brandon Pirri scored what was ultimately the game-winning tally for Vegas. Marc-Andre Fleury made 31 saves for the Golden Knights while Philipp Grubauer stopped 41 shots.

What to Watch

Milestone Watch
Gabriel Landeskog (399) needs one point to reach 400 for his career, while Mikko Rantanen (198) needs two points to reach 200. Landeskog would join Nikita Kucherov (428) as the only members of the 2011 NHL Draft to reach 400 points, while Rantanen would join Connor McDavid (339) and Jack Eichel (239) as the only players from the 2015 draft class to hit 200.
Defensive Scoring
Erik Johnson leads the Avalanche with five points (two goals, three assists) in eight games so far this month and fellow blueliner Samuel Girard is tied for second on the club with four points (one goal, three assists) this month. The Avalanche's defensemen have combined for 13 points (five goals, eight assists) in the team's eight outings so far in February.

Player to Watch

Colorado: Left wing J.T. Compher
Compher has two points (one goal, one assist) in three career games against the Golden Knights. On Thursday against Winnipeg, he notched his third shorthanded goal of the season, tied for fourth in the league. Compher's three shorthanded tallies are tied for the fourth-most in a single season in Avalanche history (since 1995-96).
Vegas: Center Cody Eakin
Eakin enters Monday's contest on a four-game point streak, recording four points (one goal, three assists) in that span. He has 13 points (eight goals, five assists) in 25 career contests against the Avalanche, and his eight goals are his most against a single opponent in his career and the most among the Golden Knights current roster.

Lineup Notes

The Avalanche did not have a practice on Sunday as the entire team attended the Avs Better Halves' Charity Brunch, but the club did make a couple of roster moves during the day. The Avs reassigned forwards Sheldon Dries and Dominic Toninato to the Colorado Eagles of the American Hockey League and recalled Andrew Agozzino.

The Details

Puck drop for Monday's game between the Golden Knights and the Avalanche is scheduled for 7 p.m., and tickets are still available. The game can be watched live on Altitude TV, and the radio broadcast can be heard on Altitude Sports Radio 92.5 FM.
It's also a Moser-McGahey Monday, as the Avs television play-by-play announcer Marc Moser will swap places with Avalanche radio play-by-play announcer, Conor McGahey.