Stars at Avalanche preview

STARS (16-13-3) at AVALANCHE (17-9-6)
9 p.m. ET; ALT, FS-SW, NHL.TV

The Avalanche have lost three in a row (0-2-1) and are 1-3-1 in their past five games after going 9-0-2 in the previous 11.
Rantanen has 24 points (six goals, 18 assists) in his 13-game point streak; he leads the NHL in points (53) and assists (40).
Anton Khudobin will make his second straight start for the Stars, who are also attempting to end a three-game losing streak.

Players to watch

Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen has five points (three goals, two assists) in a four-game point streak and seven points (three goals, four assists) in his past seven games.
Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon has five points (one goal, four assists) in a four-game point streak and 22 points (eight goals, 14 assists) in his past 13 games.

They said it

"There's going to be times in the season where teams are struggling a little bit, and there's going to be times where thing are going really well. We've just got to make sure that individually we're doing whatever it is we bring to the team that's going to help turn this around. If everyone is pulling in the right direction, we got the group that's going to be able to turn it around." -- Stars forward Blake Comeau
"Our puck management at times and some of the turnovers, they've led to automatic goals against. Our (penalty killing) hasn't been as good, our goaltending … everything's just a notch down from where it was when we were rolling along. We've got to fix everything at once." -- Avalanche coach Jared Bednar

Stars projected lineup

Jamie Benn -- Tyler Seguin -- Alexander Radulov
Devin Shore -- Martin Hanzal --
Denis Gurianov
Mattias Janmark -- Jason Spezza -- Valeri Nichushkin
Jason Dickinson -- Radek Faksa -- Blake Comeau
Esa Lindell -- Julius Honka
Miro Heiskanen -- Roman Polak
Gavin Bayreuther -- Taylor Fedun
Anton Khudobin
Ben Bishop
Scratched:Joel Hanley, Tyler Pitlick, Brett Ritchie
Injured: Connor Carrick (fractured foot), Stephen Johns (head), John Klingberg (hand), Marc Methot (knee)

Avalanche projected lineup

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

Status report

Hanzal and Gurianov will replace Pitlick and Ritchie. Gurianov was recalled from Texas of the American Hockey League. … The Avalanche didn't have a morning skate.

Stat pack

Benn will play his 700th NHL game. … Landeskog has 10 points (four goals, six assists) in the past six games.