Avalanche at Sharks preview

AVALANCHE (38-29-14) at SHARKS (45-27-9)
10:30 p.m. ET; NBCSCA+, ALT, NHL.TV

The Avalanche, 8-0-2 in their past 10 games, will secure the first wild card with a win in any fashion and a Dallas Stars loss to the Minnesota Wild in regulation earlier Saturday. Goalie Semyon Varlamov will start.
Defenseman Erik Karlsson will return to the Sharks lineup after missing 17 games with a groin injury; he has 45 points (three goals, 42 assists) in 52 games for San Jose this season.
The Sharks, 2-8-1 in their past 11 games, will finish in second place in the Pacific Division and will have home-ice advantage against the Vegas Golden Knights in the Western Conference First Round.
Forward Timo Meier will not play after sustaining a wrist injury in a 3-2 win at the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday but is expected to return when the playoffs begin.

Players to watch

Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon has seven points (three goals, four assists) in a six-game point streak.
Sharks forward Tomas Hertl has eight points (three goals, five assists) in a six-game point streak.

They said it

"We're going to treat this game like we've been treating the last 10. We're going to try and play our style and keep this thing rolling." -- Avalanche defenseman Tyson Barrie
"We want to win, we want to get to 100 points. We want to feel good about ourselves going into the playoffs." -- Sharks coach Peter DeBoer

Avalanche projected lineup

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

Sharks projected lineup

Joonas Donskoi -- Logan Couture -- Joe Pavelski
Evander Kane -- Tomas Hertl -- Gustav Nyquist
Marcus Sorensen -- Joe Thornton -- Kevin Labanc
Micheal Haley -- Barclay Goodrow -- Melker Karlsson
Marc-Edouard Vlasic - Brent Burns
Brenden Dillon - Erik Karlsson
Joakim Ryan - Justin Braun
Martin Jones
Aaron Dell
Scratched: Tim Heed, Lukas Radil
Injured: Timo Meier (wrist), Radim Simek (knee)

Status report

Rantanen took part in the morning skate wearing a non-contact jersey and will miss his eighth straight game. … Donskoi will replace Meier at left wing on a line with Couture and Pavelski. … The Sharks reassigned defenseman Jake Middleton to San Jose of the American Hockey League.

Stat pack

Kerfoot has eight points (four goals, four assists) in his past seven games. … Landeskog has five points (one goal, four assists) in his past four games. … Couture has six points (one goal, five assists) in his past five games. … Nyquist will play in his 500th NHL game.