Avalanche at Blackhawks preview

AVALANCHE (39-25-8) at BLACKHAWKS (30-34-9)
8:30 p.m. ET; NBCSCH, ALT, NHL.TV

The Avalanche are four points behind the Minnesota Wild for third place in the Central Division and tied in points with the Anaheim Ducks for the first wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference, but occupy the spot because they have one game in hand.
Colorado is 4-1-0 in its past five games and 7-1-3 in its past 11.
The Blackhawks, looking to avoid their fourth straight loss (0-2-1), are 3-7-1 in their past 11 games and trail the Ducks by 17 points for the second wild card with nine regular-season games to play.

Players to watch

Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon has 24 points (13 goals, 11 assists) in a 12-game point streak.
Blackhawks forward Alex DeBrincat scored his third hat trick of the season in a 5-4 overtime loss against the St. Louis Blues on Sunday.

They said it

"We're excited to be in the position we're in. We know it's going to be a fight to the finish and the most important hockey has yet to come, but I think the work we've done to this point of the year we can be proud of it. But now we've got to go finish the job." -- Avalanche coach Jared Bednar
"We're playing in the NHL, you're playing hockey against good teams, we're playing for the Chicago Blackhawks. … Obviously we're trying to win every game, but try not to look at the big picture too much and focus on the next game." -- Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane

Avalanche projected lineup

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

Blackhawks projected lineup

Brandon Saad -- Jonathan Toews -- Patrick Kane
Vinnie Hinostroza -- Nick Schmaltz --
Andreas Martinsen
Tomas Jurco -- Artem Anisimov -- Alex DeBrincat
Patrick Sharp -- David Kampf -- John Hayden
Duncan Keith -- Jan Rutta
Erik Gustafsson -- Brent Seabrook
Jordan Oesterle -- Connor Murphy
Anton Forsberg
J-F Berube
Scratched: None
Injured: Corey Crawford (upper body), Anthony Duclair (lower body), Matthew Highmore (undisclosed)

Status report

Wilson will return after missing eight games with a concussion. ... The Blackhawks recalled Martinsen from the Rockford IceHogs of the American Hockey League on an emergency basis. Highmore will not play after he exited early on Sunday with an undisclosed injury.

Stat pack

Rantanen has 13 points (three goals, 10 assists) in a six-game point streak. ... The Blackhawks have allowed at least five goals in four of their past five games.