Avalanche Plays Knights For First Seed

The 2-0-0 Colorado Avalanche can clinch the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference on Saturday, but it will need to beat the also undefeated Vegas Golden Knights.

Colorado, which defeated the Dallas Stars 4-0 on Friday behind Pavel Francouz's 27-save performance, won two decisive games over Vegas this season. The Avs beat the Knights 6-1 on Oct. 25 and then 7-3 on Dec. 23, with both taking place in Las Vegas. Their final matchup was set for March 15 in Denver, but the season was paused three days earlier.

The Knights beat the St. Louis Blues 6-4 on Thursday, three days after winning 5-3 over the Stars in their Stanley Cup Qualifier opener.

Avalanche vs. Vegas Golden Knights

Rogers Place | Edmonton, Alberta

| Game Time: | 1 p.m. MT | | --- | --- | | TV: | NBC, Sportsnet, TVA Sports | | Radio: | Altitude Sports Radio, FM 92.5 (KKSE) | | Live Streams: | NHL.tv, NBCSports.com, NBC Sports app, Official app | | Online Audio: | Listen Live Here | | Follow: | Virtual GameDay, Digital Arena, @Avalanche, Official app, Gamecenter |

COLORADO-VEGAS CONNECTIONS

Pierre-Edouard Bellemare played the previous two seasons with the Golden Knights after they selected him in the 2017 NHL Expansion Draft… Paul Stastny was drafted by Colorado in 2005 (No. 44 overall). He played his first eight NHL seasons with the Avalanche from 2006-2014 and ranks 11th in franchise history with 458 points (160g/298a)… Nick Holden played three seasons with Colorado from 2013-2016.

HISTORY

The Avalanche beat the Knights 7-3 in their last meeting on Dec. 23, as Pierre-Edouard Bellemare scored two goals against his former team. Colorado saw 10 players record at least a point that night, with two-point efforts from Bellemare, Nathan MacKinnon (two assists), J.T. Compher (two assists) and Valeri Nichushkin (goal and assist).

That high-scoring contest was similar to the first one, which the Avs won 6-1 on Oct. 25. Bellemare scored 28 seconds into the first period en route to a three-point outing (one goal, two assists) in his first game against his former club. Colorado then extended its lead further by tallying three goals in less than eight minutes in the second period. Nazem Kadri and Matt Calvert both scored two goals in that contest, while MacKinnon added two assists.

The Avalanche has won its last four games against the Golden Knights and holds a 5-3-0 all-time record against the NHL's youngest active franchise. MacKinnon leads the Avs in points against Vegas with eight all-time (one goal, seven assists), while Bellemare led Colorado with five points in the season series (three goals, two assists).

This is the first-ever postseason meeting between Colorado and Vegas

ROSTER REPORT

Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar did not give any lineup details or say which goaltender will start after Thursday's practice, but he did mention that the Avalanche is fully healthy.

SCOUTING THE KNIGHTS

The Knights (39-24-8) closed the regular season on an 11-2-0 run, earning a league-most 22 points from Feb. 12 to the pause. During that stretch, they averaged 3.46 goals per game, compared with 2.54 goals against, and owned the NHL's best power play with a 31-percent conversion rate.

For the season, Vegas averaged 3.15 goals per game while allowing only 2.94 the other way, both ranking 13th in the league. So far in the round-robin, Vegas has outscored opponents 11-7.

Mark Stone leads the team in points this postseason with four (two goals, four assists) while Nate Schmidt and Nick Cousins both have three. Max Pacioretty, who led the club with 66 points (32 goals, 34 assists) during the regular season, has missed both games of the round robin with an injury.

(AVS) PLAYER TO WATCH: Nazem Kadri

After his buzzer-beater, walk-off goal against the Blues, Nazem Kadri added an assist in Wednesday's win over Dallas. He's second on the team in shots this postseason with nine, behind only Nathan MacKinnon (11).

Kadri finished his first regular season with the Avs with 36 points (19 goals, 17 assists) in 51 games, averaging his most minutes on the ice (17:26) since 2015-16, and his most points per game (0.71) since 2016-17.

He scored three goals in two games against the Knights this year.

(OPPOSING) PLAYER TO WATCH: Mark Stone

Stone scored the game-winning goal midway through the third period of Vegas' 6-4 victory over St. Louis on Thursday, giving him two points in the game (one goal, one assist). He had a similar outing in their 5-3 win against the Stars on Monday, assisting on the first goal before tallying early in the third period to start the team's four-goal charge and comeback win.

Stone finished second on the Knights in scoring during the season with 63 points (21 goals, 42 assists). He had an assist in their 7-3 loss to the Avs in December, bringing his career points total against Colorado to 10 (six goals, four assists) in 13 games.

NUMBERS GAME

1

The Avalanche has allowed just one goal this postseason, fewest among playoff teams.

7

Colorado has seven players with multiple points through two games, the second-most for any round-robin participant (Vegas: 9)

39

The Avalanche is averaging 39 shots per game, tied for the second-most in the postseason.

NOTEBOOK

Colorado outshot Dallas 40-27 on Wednesday… The Avs went 11-6-2 against the Pacific Division during the regular season and 21-14-4 against the Western Conference… The Avs are the only team in the round-robin that doesn't have a single player with a negative plus/minus rating... In the victory against Dallas, Andre Burakovsky, Joonas Donskoi and Vladislav Namestnikov each scored their first postseason goals as a member of the Avalanche, while Sam Girard's two assists gave him his first career multi-point game in the postseason.