Golden Knights at Avalanche preview

GOLDEN KNIGHTS (47-21-6) at AVALANCHE (40-26-8)
3 p.m. ET; SN1, SNE, SNO, SNP, ALT, ATTSN-RM, NHL.TV

Vegas would qualify with a win, or a shootout loss combined with a St. Louis Blues loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets in regulation and a Los Angeles Kings loss to the Edmonton Oilers in regulation.
Goaltender Semyon Varlamov will play his 20th straight game (18 starts) for the Avalanche, who are 5-2-0 in their past seven games and hold the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference. The Avalanche trail the Anaheim Ducks by one point for the first wild card, and are two points behind the Minnesota Wild for third place in the Central Division.
Goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury practiced Friday and could start for the Golden Knights after sustaining an undisclosed injury Tuesday in a 4-1 win against the Vancouver Canucks.
Vegas, which became the first NHL team to reach 100 points in its first season, is 2-0-1 in its past three games and leads the San Jose Sharks by seven points for first place in the Pacific Division.

Players to watch

Golden Knights forward William Karlsson needs one goal for his first 40-goal season. He has 15 points (nine goals, six assists) in his past 15 games.
Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon has 27 points (13 goals, 14 assists) in a 14-game point streak.

They said it

"It's a huge number, definitely satisfied and happy with that. What do we got, eight games left in the season? So, let's keep adding on to the points, but it's definitely a huge feat for our group so far." -- Golden Knights coach Gerard Gallant on reaching 100 points
"You've got to be careful watching the scoreboard because it's wasted emotion. We're concentrating on what we have to do to get in and how many games we have to win and how we have to prepare and how we have to play."-- Avalanche coach Jared Bednar

Golden Knights projected lineup

Jonathan Marchessault -- William Karlsson -- Tomas Tatar
David Perron -- Erik Haula -- James Neal
Ryan Carpenter -- Cody Eakin -- Alex Tuch
Tomas Nosek -- Pierre-Edouard Bellemare -- Ryan Reaves
Brayden McNabb -- Nate Schmidt
Shea Theodore -- Deryk Engelland
Jon Merrill -- Colin Miller
Marc-Andre Fleury
Malcolm Subban
Scratched:Brad Hunt, Oscar Lindberg, Zach Whitecloud
Injured: William Carrier (upper body), Luca Sbisa (upper body), Reilly Smith (upper body)

Avalanche projected lineup

Gabriel Landeskog -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Mikko Rantanen
Tyson Jost -- J.T. Compher -- Sven Andrighetto
Matt Nieto -- Carl Soderberg -- Blake Comeau
Colin Wilson -- Alex Kerfoot -- Gabriel Bourque
Patrik Nemeth -- Erik Johnson
Nikita Zadorov -- Tyson Barrie
David Warsofsky -- Samuel Girard
Semyon Varlamov
Jonathan Bernier
Scratched:Mark Alt, Vladislav Kamenev, Anton Lindholm, Duncan Siemens, Dominic Toninato, Nail Yakupov
Injured:Mark Barberio (upper body), Andrew Hammond (concussion)

Status report

The Avalanche assigned goalie Spencer Martin to San Antonio of the American Hockey League. ... The Golden Knights assigned goalie Oscar Dansk to Chicago of the AHL.

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Stat pack

Rantanen has 16 points (five goals, 11 assists) in an eight-game point streak. … Fleury needs one win to tie Grant Fuhr (403) for 11th in NHL history.