Colorado Continues Canadian Road Trip

The Colorado Avalanche takes on the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday for the second time in five days, having met in the Mile High City on Sunday.
This is the third and final meeting in the season series and the second matchup between the clubs in Edmonton.
Colorado owns a 63-43-10 record against the Oilers since the 1996-96 season and have gone 29-21-7 as the visiting team.

Last Time Out

The Colorado Avalanche stormed back from a 4-1 deficit at Vancouver on Tuesday to defeat the Canucks 5-4 in overtime. Tyson Barrie recorded five points (one goal, four assists) for Colorado while four different Avalanche skaters registered multi-point games in the win. Nathan MacKinnon scored the game-winner in overtime and tallied four points (one goal, three assists). Mikko Rantanen notched one marker and two assists and Gabriel Landeskog had one goal and one helper in the come-from-behind win. Colorado scored all five of their goals on the power play in Tuesday's contest, going five-for-six with the man advantage.
The Edmonton Oilers dropped a 3-2 contest to the Boston Bruins on Tuesday night. The Oilers took the lead on a goal from Ryan Strome, his second goal in as many games, and Jujhar Khaira made it 2-0 for Edmonton going into the third period. The Bruins, however, notched three-unanswered goals in the final frame, including the game winner with 1:04 left, to hand the Oilers their eighth loss in its last 10 games.

Last Time They Met

Colorado hosted Edmonton on Sunday in a matinee matchup that the Avs dropped by a score of 4-2. Tyson Jost opened the scoring for the Avalanche in the first period and fellow rookie Alexander Kerfoot also found the back of the net for his 15th goal of the year. Oilers captain Connor McDavid scored two goals in the third period to get his fourth career hat trick and help his team to victory. Semyon Varlamov made 36 saves in the effort. The loss snapped a 10-game home winning streak for Colorado.

What To Watch

On The Road Again
The Avalanche has two games in a stretch of season where Colorado finds themselves in the midst of playing 13-of-16 away from the comforts of home ice. So far this season, the Avalanche are 12-15-3 away from Pepsi Center. Colorado wraps up their three-game Canadian road swing Saturday afternoon against the Calgary Flames before returning home for four games.
Opportunities On Defense
The last time these two clubs met, Avalanche defensemen Erik Johnson and Anton Lindholm both suffered upper-body injuries and left the game early. Johnson, the team's top-pair defenseman, averages 25:43 of ice time per game and has 22 points (seven goals, 15 assists) in 56 games this year. The 23-year-old rookie Lindholm has been on a pair with Tyson Barrie and has three assists in 43 games. Johnson and Lindholm join fellow-defenseman Mark Barberio, who has been out with a lower-body injury since Jan. 25. Duncan Siemens and David Warsofsky were the Avs' third defensive pairing on Tuesday and played 10:22 and 12:42, respectively.

Player To Watch

Colorado: Goaltender Semyon Varlamov
In his last four starts, Semyon Varlamov has a 2-2-0 record and boasts a save percentage of .932 in that span, including a 44-save shutout against the Montreal Canadiens on Valentine's Day. Varlamov has been peppered with a total of 146 shots against while only allowing 10 of those shots in the net in his last four. The backstop started in Sunday's contest against Edmonton and made 36 saves in the effort.
Edmonton: Center Leon Draisaitl
In the month of February, Leon Draisaitl has notched 12 points (five goals, seven assists) in a total of 10 games, including a pair of assists to help Connor McDavid get his fourth-career hat trick in Sunday's matchup against the Colorado Avalanche. Leon Draisaitl also tallied two assists in a 4-3 overtime loss against the Avs on Feb. 1 in Edmonton. The Oilers forward is second amongst Edmonton players in scoring with 52 points (17 goals, 35 assists) in 55 games.

Details

Puck drop at Rogers Place in Edmonton is set for 7 p.m. MT. The game can be seen locally on Altitude and can be heard on Altitude Sports Radio AM 950.