Avalanche at Flames preview

AVALANCHE (32-23-5) at FLAMES (31-22-9)
4 p.m. ET; SNW, ALT, NHL.TV

Each team is 1-2-1 in its past four games.
Calgary is 13-14-4 at home and entered Friday trailing the St. Louis Blues by one point for the second wild card into the playoffs from the Western Conference. The Flames also trail the Anaheim Ducks by two points for third place in the Pacific Division.
Colorado is 5-7-2 since a 10-game winning streak and entered Friday trailing the Blues by three points for the second wild card in the West. The Avalanche also trail the Dallas Stars by five points for third place in the Central Division.

Players to watch

Colorado defenseman Tyson Barrie has five points (one goal, four assists) in his past two games.
Calgary defenseman Dougie Hamilton has nine points (five goals, four assists) in his past five games.

They said it

"Right now every two points matter just that much more. We've got 22 games to go. We know each point is going to be important. We've got to approach (Saturday) like a playoff game." -- Avalanche forward Gabriel Landeskog
"Game-in and game-out right now are must-wins for us. You see how tight the standings are. Every game is important. These points are crucial now with less than 20 games in the season now." -- Flames forward Johnny Gaudreau

Avalanche projected lineup

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

Flames projected lineup

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

Status report

Varlamov is expected to start. …The Flames did not practice Friday. Gillies could earn a second straight start after making 35 saves in a 5-2 win at the Arizona Coyotes on Thursday.

Stat pack

Rantanen has six points (two goals, four assists) in his past seven games, and 23 points (seven goals, 16 assists) in his past 21. …Gaudreau has 16 points (five goals, 11 assists) in the past 12 games. Monahan has seven points (one goal, six assists) in his past five games, and 14 points (six goals, eight assists) in 12 games this month.