Avalanche at Blackhawks preview

AVALANCHE (35-24-6) at BLACKHAWKS (28-30-8)
8:30 p.m. ET; WGN, ALT, NHL.TV

Goalie Semyon Varlamov will start his ninth straight game for the Avalanche, who are 3-0-1 in their past four games and one point behind the Los Angeles Kings for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the West.
The Blackhawks return home after going 1-3-0 on a four-game road trip. They trail the Kings by 13 points.

Players to watch

Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon has 12 points (six goals, six assists) in a five-game point streak and 16 points (seven goals, nine assists) in his past seven games.
Blackhawks center Jonathan Toews has 19 goals in 38 games against the Avalanche, the most he's scored against one team in the NHL.

They said it

"I think there's an enthusiasm around our team right now, guys are excited to hit this last month of the season. ... This is what we wanted, we wanted to be playing important games at the end of the season and give ourselves a chance to get in, and we have that." -- Avalanche coach Jared Bednar
"We're still trying to build on our game, play competitive. Got another chance against a divisional opponent tonight in Colorado, a team that's playing really well this year and fighting for a playoff spot too, so pretty good test for us. Try to play well here at home." -- Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane

Avalanche projected lineup

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

Blackhawks projected lineup

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

Status report

Bernier will back up Varlamov after missing eight games with a head injury. Bednar said there's a chance Bernier will start and Andrighetto will return against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday. The Avalanche assigned goalie Spencer Martin to San Antonio of the American Hockey League on Tuesday.... The Blackhawks agreed to terms with Gustafsson on a two-year contract and forward Tyler Sikura on a one-year contract for the 2018-19 season.

Stat pack

The Avalanche are 3-7-2 in their past 12 road games. ... The Blackhawks are 3-1-0 in their past four home games after going 0-6-1 in their previous seven.