Flames at Avalanche preview

FLAMES (32-23-9) at AVALANCHE (33-24-5)
9:30 p.m. ET; SN360, ALT, NHL.TV

The Flames, who lost 2-0 to the Dallas Stars on Tuesday, are two points behind the third-place Los Angeles Kings in the Pacific Division but will have played one more game.
The Avalanche are three points behind Anaheim for the second wild card with two games in hand and eight points behind the third-place Minnesota Wild in the Central Division. Colorado has gone 11-1-0 in the past 12 home games.

Players to watch

Flames forward Matthew Tkachuk has 11 points (seven goals, four assists) in his past 10 games.
Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon has a two-game point streak with four points (three goals, one assist) and eight points (four goals, four assists) in his past four games.

They said it

"You just have to keep putting your good road game on the table again. We have 18 games left and we have to re-energize and reload and get back at it and get some points." -- Flames coach Glen Gulutzan
"We're in the (playoff) race and we have to embrace where we are and enjoy being the underdogs in this thing. Our guys are excited. They feel like we can get in, we feel like we can get in. In my opinion, we're playing playoff hockey already." -- Avalanche coach Jared Bednar

Flames projected lineup

Johnny Gaudreau -- Sean Monahan -- Chris Stewart
Matthew Tkachuk -- Mikael Backlund -- Michael Frolik
Sam Bennett -- Mark Jankowski -- Garnet Hathaway
Troy Brouwer -- Matt Stajan -- Curtis Lazar
Mark Giordano -- Dougie Hamilton
TJ Brodie -- Travis Hamonic
Brett Kulak -- Michael Stone
David Rittich
Jon Gillies
Scratched: Matt Bartkowski, Tanner Glass, Nicholas Shore
Injured: Micheal Ferland (upper body), Marek Hrivik (upper body), Mike Smith (lower body), Kris Versteeg (hip)

Avalanche projected lineup

Gabriel Landeskog -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Mikko Rantanen
Tyson Jost -- Alex Kerfoot -- Colin Wilson
Matt Nieto -- Carl Soderberg -- Blake Comeau
Gabriel Bourque -- Dominic Toninato -- J.T. Compher
Nikita Zadorov -- Tyson Barrie
Patrik Nemeth -- Samuel Girard
Duncan Siemens -- David Warsofsky
Semyon Varlamov
Spencer Martin
Scratched: Mark Alt, Nail Yakupov
Injured: Sven Andrighetto (lower body),Mark Barberio (upper body), Jonathan Bernier (concussion), Andrew Hammond (concussion), Erik Johnson (upper body), Vladislav Kamenev (fractured arm), Anton Lindholm (upper body)

Status report

Rittich is expected to start for the Flames, who had an optional morning skate ... Martin was recalled Tuesday from San Antonio of the American Hockey League.

Stat pack

The Flames have gone 6-3-1 in the second games of a back-to-back set ... The Avalanche are 28-6-2 when they score first.