Colorado Begins Back-To-Back At Pittsburgh

The Colorado Avalanche continues its four-game road trip at the Pittsburgh Penguins on Monday. This is the first of two meetings between the clubs this campaign. The contest will also be the first half of a back-to-back for the Avalanche as the squad completes its road trip at the Washington Capitals on Tuesday night.
The Avs improved to 13-13-2 this season after defeating the Florida Panthers on Saturday night. Pittsburgh also hit the ice on Saturday and fell to 16-12-3 after being outscored by the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Since 1995-96, Colorado is 17-8-3-3 in 31 contests against Pittsburgh but has lost three of the last four outings. The Avs are 10-4-1-1 when visiting the Steel City.

Last Time Out

Colorado Avalanche
The Avalanche snapped a four-game losing streak on Saturday night with a 7-3 victory over the Florida Panthers. Seven Avalanche skaters found the back of the net and 14 players hit the scoresheet for Colorado. Mikko Rantanen opened the scoring in the first period but the contest was knotted 1-1 going into first intermission. The Panthers took their only lead of the match less than five minutes into the second period until Nathan MacKinnon tied the game 2-2. Forty-one seconds later Alexander Kerfoot lit the lamp to give the lead back to the Avs. Colorado netted four pucks in the final 20 minutes to secure the win. Erik Johnson, Colin Wilson, Matt Nieto and Carl Soderberg all recorded a tally in the final frame and Avs goaltender Semyon Varlamov finished with 39 saves, including 19 in the third period.
Pittsburgh Penguins
The Penguins fell 4-3 to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night. Toronto found the back of the net three times in the first period to give the squad a lead it never gave up. Tallies from Riley Sheahan and Evgeni Malkin, on the power play, cut a 3-0 Maple Leafs lead to 3-2 in the middle period before the Maple Leafs extended their lead to 4-2 before the second intermission. The Penguins registered another goal in the final stanza to get within one but ran out of time before the squad was able to tie the contest.

Last Time They Met

The Colorado Avalanche hosted the Penguins on February 9 when they suffered a 4-1 loss to Pittsburgh. The Avs were down 1-0 after the first 20 minutes until the Penguins extended their lead with a pair of markers in the second. Gabriel Landeskog put the Avalanche on the board with a power play goal in the third frame before the Penguins registered their fourth tally in the final minute.

What to Watch

Staying Positive
The final score of a game doesn't always show the effort that is exerted into the contest and for the Avalanche it is important to continue to see the positives out of each time they hit the ice.
"There was a lot of good things out of the Tampa game," said Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar. "I know we lost 5-2, but you got to take the positives out of it and we played large portions of that game pretty well against a really good team. We felt like if we came out with the same fire and determination that things will start happening for us."
Bednar praised his young squad for the way they continued to battle in Florida, no matter what the scoreboard said.
"I really liked our start, loved our first period. It was kind of a little bit disappointing to come out of that 1-1, we gave up the late goal, but we stuck with it in the second," he said. "Even when we fell behind, we continued to push and did some good things."

Player to Watch

Colorado: Center Carl Soderberg
Carl Soderberg has recorded 12 points (four goals, eight assists) in 25 games this campaign. On Saturday night, the forward tallied a goal and an assist for his third multipoint game of the season.
Penguins: Center Sidney Crosby
Sidney Crosby is second in team points with 13 goals and 19 assists for 32 tallies in 31 games. The forward has found the scoresheet in 10 of his last 12 games, including registering seven multipoint games in that time.

The Details

Puck drop is set for 5 p.m. MT at PPG Paints Arena. The game will be televised on Altitude and the radio broadcast can be heard on Altitude Sports Radio AM 950 or online at ColoradoAvalanche.com.