Avalanche at Red Wings preview

AVALANCHE (15-6-5) at RED WINGS (12-11-3)
7 p.m. ET; FS-D, ALT, NHL.TV

Colorado's six-game winning streak ended with a 3-2 overtime loss to the St. Louis Blues on Friday. The Avalanche haven't lost in regulation since Nov. 9 (8-0-2).
The Red Wings have won two straight after a three-game losing streak. They play the second of a back to back after a 4-2 victory against the Boston Bruins ended a nine-game losing streak at TD Garden.

Players to watch

Avalanche forward Mikko Rantanen has 14 points (four goals, 10 assists) in a seven-game point streak. He leads the NHL with 43 points and his 32 assists are tied for first with Toronto Maple Leafs forward Mitch Marner.
Detroit forward Anthony Mantha has five points (three goals, two assists) in his past four games. and eight goals in his past 16 games.

They said it

"The extent of my knowledge about the old rivalry with the Red Wings is the video tribute they showed the last time we played at Joe Louis Arena." -- Avalanche forward J.T. Compher
"We're in a really tough part of our schedule with a lot of games against a lot of tough teams, so to come in to Boston and get two points is a big confidence boost for us." -- Red Wings center Dylan Larkin

Avalanche projected lineup

Gabriel Landeskog -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Mikko Rantanen
Tyson Jost -- Alex Kerfoot -- Colin Wilson
Matt Nieto -- Carl Soderberg -- Matt Calvert
Sven Andrighetto - Vladislav Kamenev -- J.T. Compher
Samuel Girard -- Ian Cole
Patrik Nemeth -- Nikita Zadorov
Erik Johnson -- Mark Alt
Semyon Varlamov
Philipp Grubauer
Scratched: Gabriel Bourque, Sheldon Dries
Injured: Mark Barberio (upper body), Tyson Barrie (lower body)

Red Wings projected lineup

Anthony Mantha -- Dylan Larkin -- Justin Abdelkader
Gustav Nyquist -- Frans Nielsen -- Andreas Athanasiou
Tyler Bertuzzi -- Luke Glendening -- Michael Rasmussen
Thomas Vanek -- Jacob de la Rose -- Luke Witkowski
Danny DeKeyser -- Nick Jensen
Niklas Kronwall -- Mike Green
Jonathan Ericsson -- Dennis Cholowski
Jonathan Bernier
Jimmy Howard
Scratched:Christoffer Ehn, Martin Frk
Injured:Evgeny Svechnikov (knee surgery), Darren Helm (upper body)

Status report

Barrie took part in the morning skate but will not play. … The Red Wings did not skate.

Stat pack

Rantanen had 21 points in October and 22 points in November. The last Avalanche player with back-to-back 20-point months was Peter Forsberg, who did it in three straight months (January-March) in 2002-03. … The Red Wings are 5-1-1 in their past seven home games. … Detroit has 23 points (11-4-1) since Oct. 28, one behind the Tampa Bay Lightning (12-5-0) and Buffalo Sabres (11-3-2) for first in the NHL.