Avalanche at Blackhawks preview

AVALANCHE (34-29-12) at BLACKHAWKS (32-32-10)
8 p.m. ET; NBCSN, NHL.TV

Colorado, which holds the second wild card into the playoffs from the Western Conference, has won four straight after going 2-5-0 in its previous seven games. The Avalanche are one point ahead of the Arizona Coyotes and Minnesota Wild and two points behind the Dallas Stars for the first wild card.
Chicago, which is six points behind Colorado after losing the first game of a home-and-home with the Avalanche 4-2 on Saturday, has eight games remaining in the regular season and has lost three straight (0-2-1) after a five-game winning streak.

Players to watch

Avalanche forward Colin Wilson has four points (one goal, three assists) in a three-game point streak after scoring a goal and an assist on Saturday.
Blackhawks defenseman Erik Gustafsson has a three-game goal streak and is tied with Kris Letang of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Mark Giordano of the Calgary Flames for second in goals (16) among defensemen behind Morgan Rielly of the Toronto Maple Leafs (20).

They said it

"We need everybody stepping up in these big games. We've checked well and because we are playing such good defense, it's leading to offense. Most of this group went through the same thing last year. We were fighting for a playoff spot for the last month or two. We know what it takes and this past week we've been putting together games that are good enough to get wins." -- Avalanche forward J.T. Compher
''Every game has been a must-win here, so . . . whatever you want to call it, it's a huge two points. We've [need to] have our best game of the year every game going forward. So now we turn the page and try to have our best game (Sunday), starting in the first five minutes.'' -- Blackhawks defenseman Duncan Keith

Avalanche projected lineup

Derick Brassard -- Nathan MacKinnon -- J.T. Compher
Colin Wilson -- Carl Soderberg -- Andrew Agozzino
Alexander Kerfoot -- Tyson Jost -- Matt Calvert
Gabriel Bourque -- Sven Andrighetto
Samuel Girard -- Erik Johnson
Ian Cole -- Tyson Barrie
Nikita Zadorov -- Patrik Nemeth
Ryan Graves
Philipp Grubauer
Semyon Varlamov
Scratched: None
Injured: Mark Barberio (leg), Vladislav Kamenev (shoulder), Gabriel Landeskog (upper body), Matt Nieto (leg), Mikko Rantanen (upper body)

Blackhawks projected lineup

Dylan Sikura -- Jonathan Toews -- Patrick Kane
Alex DeBrincat -- Dylan Strome -- Brendan Perlini
Brandon Saad -- Artem Anisimov -- Dominik Kahun
Chris Kunitz -- David Kampf -- Marcus Kruger
Duncan Keith -- Brent Seabrook
Carl Dahlstrom -- Erik Gustafsson
Gustav Forsling -- Connor Murphy
Corey Crawford
Cam Ward
Scratched: John Hayden, Slater Koekkoek
Injured: Drake Caggiula (concussion)

Status report

Rantanen missed his first game of the season Saturday and won't play Sunday. Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said he is day to day.

Stat pack

Grubauer is 5-1-0 with a 1.01 goals-against average, .968 save percentage and two shutouts in his past six starts. … MacKinnon has nine points (four goals, five assists) in his past nine games. … Toews has three points (two goals, one assist) in a three-game point streak and 32 points (14 goals, 18 assists) in his past 25 games. … Kane has eight points (one goals, seven assists) in his past 10 games after he had 44 points (18 goals, 26 assists) in his previous 22.