Blues at Avalanche preview

BLUES (29-22-5) at AVALANCHE (23-23-11)
3 p.m. ET; ALT, FS-MW, NHL.TV

The Blues, tied in points with the Dallas Stars for third place in the Central Division, have outscored opponents 33-14 during their eight-game winning streak and are attempting to match their longest streak since they won nine consecutive games from Oct. 15-Nov. 5, 2002.
Goalie Jake Allen will start for the Blues.
The Avalanche will attempt to win consecutive games for the first time since they won six straight Nov. 18-28. Colorado, 1-5-3 in its past nine games, is three points behind the Minnesota Wild for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference.

Players to watch

Blues forward Vladimir Tarasenko has 17 points (nine goals, eight assists) in an NHL career-high 10-game point streak.
Avalanche forward Mikko Rantanen has three points (one goal, two assists) in his past nine games after he had 11 points (six goals, five assists) in his previous seven. He is two points shy of 200 in the NHL.

They said it

"I don't think anybody deserves to come out. Things are going OK right now, why change it? There's really no reason to. I think it keeps everybody going. But on the unfortunate side of it, some guys don't get in the lineup." -- Blues coach Craig Berube
"We kind of put our ourselves in a tough position a little bit because we were [one of] the best teams and kind of went down in the standings. We have to string together points, we definitely need a streak." -- Avalanche goalie Semyon Varlamov

Blues projected lineup

Brayden Schenn -- Ryan O'Reilly -- Vladimir Tarasenko
Jaden Schwartz -- Tyler Bozak -- Alexander Steen
Zach Sanford -- Oskar Sundqvist -- Pat Maroon
Mackenzie MacEachern -- Ivan Barbashev -- Robert Thomas
Joel Edmundson -- Alex Pietrangelo
Jay Bouwmeester -- Colton Parayko
Vince Dunn -- Robert Bortuzzo
Jake Allen
Jordan Binnington
Scratched: Chris Butler, Robby Fabbri
Injured: Carl Gunnarsson (upper body), David Perron (upper body)

Avalanche projected lineup

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

Status report

Gunnarsson is day to day. … Perron did not make the trip.

Stat pack

O'Reilly has 15 points (five goals, 10 assists) in his past 13 games. … Landeskog needs one point for 400 in the NHL.