Colorado And Vegas Begin Home-And-Home Set In Denver

The Colorado Avalanche hosts the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday afternoon at Pepsi Center in the last of seven home matinee contests this season and the fourth this month.
It's the first and only meeting in Denver between the teams, who will also play Monday night in Las Vegas to wrap up the home-and-home set and the three-game season series.
Colorado enters Saturday's tilt sitting in the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference, while Vegas, which became the fourth team in the league to reach 100 points on Thursday night, is in first place in the Pacific Division.

Last Time Out

The Avalanche is coming off a 7-1 loss to the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday night at Pepsi Center. Colorado scored the first goal of the game, but the Kings rattled off seven unanswered tallies to take the win, marking just the seventh time this season the Avs have lost when scoring the game's first goal. The Avalanche was scoreless on three power-play opportunities and 1-for-2 on the penalty kill.
Vegas fell to the San Jose Sharks 2-1 in overtime on Thursday night, and with a point, became the first team in NHL history to record 100 points in its inaugural season. Tomas Tatar scored Vegas' lone goal, and Malcolm Subban made 42 saves for the Golden Knights, who were outshot 44-25 in the contest.

Last Time They Met

It's been nearly five months since the last matchup between Vegas and Colorado. The Golden Knights won 7-0 at T-Mobile Arena back on Oct. 27, the first shutout for the NHL's newest addition. James Neal, Cody Eakin, David Perron and Jonathan Marchessault each tallied a goal and an assist to finish with two points. Semyon Varlamov was in net for the Avs, while Oscar Dansk backstopped the Golden Knights.

What To Watch

First To Score
Both teams have found success this season when potting the first goal of the game. Colorado is 33-7-3 when finding the back of the net before the opposition, the fourth-most wins in the NHL when doing so. Vegas is 31-5-2 when scoring first, giving the Golden Knights the third-ranked win percentage in the league (.816) when they do.
Streaks To Watch
Both Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen can reach new career highs for point streaks in Saturday's contest. MacKinnon is on a career-long 14-game point streak, while Rantanen is currently on an eight-game run, equaling his career high from earlier this season (Dec. 12-29).
MacKinnon (nine goals, 12 assists) and Rantanen (seven goals, 14 assists) have each recorded 21 points in March, tied for the league lead in scoring for the month.

Players To Watch

Colorado: Defenseman Nikita Zadorov
Zadorov has already reached career highs in goals (seven), assists (13) and points (20) this season. He delivered a career-high 15 hits against the Kings on Thursday night, an Avalanche record and the most by any NHL player since the 2005-06 campaign.
Vegas: Center Jonathan Marchessault
Marchessault's 68 points (23 goals, 45 assists) leads the Golden Knights, and he ranks second in the league in plus-minus rating at plus-33, trailing only teammate William Karlsson. The forward enters Saturday's contest on a three-game point streak.

Lineup Notes

Goaltender Semyon Varlamov will make his seventh straight start and play in his 20th consecutive game for the Avalanche on Saturday. Carl Soderberg returned to full practice on Friday after missing the previous two games with an illness and will be back in the Colorado lineup against Vegas. Avs head coach Jared Bednar eluded to possibly making other tweaks to his forward lines and defensive pairing on Friday, but that he hadn't made any final decisions yet.
Projected Lineup: Avalanche vs. Golden Knights

The Details

Saturday's contest between the Avs and Golden Knights begins at 1 p.m., and limited tickets are still available. The game can be watched live on Altitude, and the radio broadcast can be heard on Altitude Sports Radio AM 950 or online at ColoradoAvalanche.com.
The Avalanche will honor U.S. Women's National Team goaltender and 2018 Olympic gold medalist Nicole Hensley during the game.
Hensley, who is from Lakewood, Colorado, will drop the puck in a ceremonial faceoff prior to the outing.