Golden Knights at Avalanche preview

GOLDEN KNIGHTS (42-28-6) at AVALANCHE (34-29-13)
10 p.m. ET; NBCSN

The Golden Knights are third in the Pacific Division, five points behind the second-place San Jose Sharks, and 10-2-1 in their past 13 games.
The Avalanche are tied with the Arizona Coyotes for the second wild card into the playoffs from the Western Conference and three points behind the Dallas Stars, who hold the first wild card and play the Calgary Flames. Colorado is 4-0-1 in its past five games after losing five of its previous seven (2-5-0).
An Avalanche regulation loss will clinch a playoff berth for the St. Louis Blues.

Players to watch

Golden Knights forward Reilly Smith has nine points (four goals, five assists) in his past five games.
Avalanche goalie Philipp Grubauer is 4-0-1 with a 1.19 goals-against average and .966 save percentage in his past five starts.

They said it

"It's a big game. Every game's going to be a big game. They're playing good hockey, they're fighting for their lives right now and they're going to battle. We know it's going to be a tough game." -- Golden Knights coach Gerard Gallant
"We put ourselves in position where we control our own destiny. There's going to be a lot of exciting hockey coming down the stretch." -- Avalanche defenseman Tyson Barrie

Golden Knights projected lineup

Jonathan Marchessault -- William Karlsson -- Reilly Smith
Alex Tuch -- Paul Stastny -- Mark Stone
Ryan Carpenter -- Cody Eakin -- Tomas Nosek
William Carrier -- Pierre-Edouard Bellemare -- Ryan Reaves
Nate Schmidt -- Deryk Engelland
Brayden McNabb -- Shea Theodore
Jon Merrill -- Colin Miller
Malcolm Subban
Maxime Lagace
Scratched:Nick Holden, Valentin Zykov
Injured:Marc-Andre Fleury (lower body), Erik Haula (lower body), Max Pacioretty (lower body), Brandon Pirri (lower body)

Avalanche projected lineup

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

Status report

Bellemare will play after being scratched the past three games … Theodore returns after he was scratched one game … Nieto is in after missing 15 games with a foot injury … Landeskog practiced wearing a non-contact jersey.

Stat pack

Karlsson has eight points (four goals, four assists) in his past five games and 13 (five goals, eight assists) in his past 11. … MacKinnon has one assist in four games after getting nine points (four goals, five assists) in his previous six.