Minnesota Wild (22-10-2, fourth in the Central) vs. Colorado Avalanche (24-8-3, first in the Central)
Denver; Monday, 3 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: Colorado hosts the Minnesota Wild after the Avalanche shut out Arizona 5-0. Darcy Kuemper earned the victory in the net for Colorado after recording 20 saves.
The Avalanche are 15-4-1 in Western Conference games. Colorado averages 9.8 penalty minutes per game, the fourth-most in the Western Conference. Gabriel Landeskog leads the team serving 49 total minutes.
The Wild are 5-4-0 against the rest of their division. Minnesota has scored 125 goals and is third in the league averaging 3.7 goals per game. Ryan Hartman leads the team with 16.
In their last meeting on Oct. 30, Colorado won 4-1. Landeskog recorded a team-high 4 points for the Avalanche.
TOP PERFORMERS: Mikko Rantanen leads the Avalanche with 19 goals, adding 25 assists and totaling 44 points. Nathan MacKinnon has five goals and 12 assists over the last 10 games for Colorado.
Hartman leads the Wild with a plus-29 in 34 games this season. Kirill Kaprizov has five goals and eight assists over the last 10 games for Minnesota.
LAST 10 GAMES: Avalanche: 8-1-1, averaging 4.2 goals, 7.3 assists, four penalties and 8.8 penalty minutes while giving up 2.7 goals per game with a .907 save percentage.
Wild: 5-4-1, averaging 3.6 goals, six assists, 4.3 penalties and 9.5 penalty minutes while giving up 3.1 goals per game with a .913 save percentage.
INJURIES: Avalanche: Bowen Byram: out (personal), Gabriel Landeskog: out (covid-19), Darren Helm: day to day (lower body), Ryan Murray: day to day (upper body).
Wild: Joel Eriksson Ek: out (covid-19), Cam Talbot: day to day (lower body), Jonas Brodin: day to day (lower body), Nick Bjugstad: out (upper body).
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
The Associated Press