Avalanche Faces Devils on St. Patrick's Day

The Colorado Avalanche (30-29-12) faces off against the New Jersey Devils (27-36-9) in a Sunday afternoon matchup at Pepsi Center on St. Patrick's Day. The 1 p.m. MT contest is the second and final meeting between the clubs this season.
The Avs hold a 17-14-4 record versus the Devils since the 1995-96 campaign and are 10-6-1 on home ice in the series.

Derick Brassard leads active Colorado skaters with 14 points (four goals, 10 assists) in 25 career games against New Jersey, while Matt Calvert is second with nine points (four goals, five assists) in 16 outing against the Devils.
After the St. Patrick's Day matinee, the Avs hit the road for two Central Division matchups against the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday and Dallas Stars on Thursday.

Last Time Out

Colorado fell 5-3 to the Anaheim Ducks on Friday night at Pepsi Center. Nathan MacKinnon charted his 26th multi-point game of the season with a goal and an assist while Mikko Rantanen and Sven Andrighetto each tallied a marker of their own. J.T. Compher, Samuel Girard, Tyson Barrie, Ian Cole and Tyson Jost also contributed assists for Colorado. Avalanche netminder Semyon Varlamov made 32 saves in net as the Avs outshot the Ducks 44-37.
New Jersey took down the Vancouver Canucks, 3-2, in a game decided by a seven-round shootout on Friday night at Rogers Arena. After falling behind 2-0, Kevin Rooney and Stefan Noesen notched regulation goals for the Devils to even the score at 2-2 in the third period. Damon Severson tallied the game-deciding tally to end the night, beating Vancouver's Jacob Markstrom in the seventh round of the tiebreaker. Connor Carrick, Kenny Agostino, Eric Tangradi and Will Butcher each registered an assist in the win, while New Jersey goaltender MacKenzie Blackwood made 25 saves in regulation and overtime for the victory.

Last Time They Met

Gabriel Landeskog recorded his third career NHL hat trick as the Avs handed the Devils their first regular season loss by winning 5-3 on Oct. 18 at Prudential Center. Nico Hichier began the scoring for New Jersey before Sven Andrighetto netted his first goal of the season and Landeskog recorded his first tally of the game. Taylor Hall and Brian Boyle answered with a goal apiece to give the Devils a 3-2 lead, but the Avs soon answered. Landeskog reached the back of the net twice in the third period, and Mikko Rantanen added an empty-netter to seal the victory for Colorado. Philipp Grubauer made 27 saves for his first win with the Avalanche, while Keith Kinkaid stopped 29 shots between the pipes for New Jersey.

What To Watch

Nearly 90
Nathan MacKinnon leads the team with 89 points (36 goals, 53 assists) and Mikko Rantanen ranks second with 87 points (31 goals, 56 assists) this season. The last time the Avalanche had two players reach the 90-point plateau in a season was the 2002-03 campaign when Peter Forsberg had 106 points (29 goals, 77 assists) and Milan Hejduk recorded 98 (50 goals, 48 assists).
#Blocked
As a team, the Avalanche shares fifth place in the league in blocked shots with 1,112 this season. Defenseman Ian Cole leads the club and ranks tied for fourth in the NHL with 150 solo blocks, the second most in his career (194 in 2016-17).

Players To Watch

Colorado: Left Wing J.T. Compher
The Northbrook, Illinois, native has tallied two points (one goal, one assist) in his last two matchups against the Devils, but he missed the contest earlier this season while recovering from a concussion. Compher added an assist in the game against the Ducks on Thursday to push his career-high point total to 31 (15 goals, 16 assists) this year.
New Jersey: Left Wing Kenny Agostino
Agostino is on a four-game point streak, having recorded two goals and three assists in that time. Since being claimed on waivers from the Montreal Canadiens on Feb. 12, Agostino has nine points (three goals, six assists) in 17 outings with the Devils. After playing 23 NHL games over the course of five seasons with three other clubs, the Morristown, New Jersey, native is seeing his first significant amount of ice time in the league this year. He has produced 20 points (five goals, 15 assists) in 53 contests in 2018-19.

The Details

Sunday's St. Patrick's Day clash between the Avalanche and Devils is scheduled for 1 p.m. MT. The game can be watched locally on Altitude or streamed on select devices with the Altitude Now app (in market) or NHL.tv (out of market). The radio broadcast can be heard on Altitude Sports Radio FM 92.5 in the Denver area or online at ColoradoAvalanche.com.