Zucker - Staal - Granlund
Parise - Koivu - Coyle
Niederreiter - Eriksson-Ek - Ennis
Foligno - Cullen - Winnik
Suter - Spurgeon
Brodin - Dumba
Seeler - Prosser
Stalock
Landeskog - MacKinnon - Rantanen
Jost - Kerfoot - Wilson
Comeau - Soderberg - Nieto
Compher - Toninato - Bourque
Barrie - Zadorov
Girard - Nemeth
Siemens - Lindholm
Varlamov
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The Opponent
The Avalanche is coming off a decisive win against the Calgary Flames on Wednesday night, still very much in the playoff race after taking two points in a must-win game.
Forward Nathan MacKinnon leads the team in nearly every statistical category, including 71 points (29-42=71) despite missing eight games. One of those goals and two assists came against Minnesota this season.
Goaltenders Semyon Varlamov and Jonathan Bernier have split the action almost evenly for Colorado; Bernier has started 29 games while Varlamov has started 34, including Wednesday against Calgary.
Devan Dubnyk is expected to start in net against the Avalanche after Alex Stalock got the nod Thursday against the Arizona Coyotes. Dubnyk is 16-9-1 in his career against Colorado, with four of his wins coming from shutouts -- his most victories and shutouts against any NHL team.
The Wild and Avalanche have split the 2017-18 campaign so far, with each team winning in front of its home crowd. After Thursday's games, Colorado sits one point outside of the Western Conference's second and final wild card spot, while Minnesota remains third in the Central Division (two points ahead of Dallas).
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Chalk last night up to bad goaltending. Win this one.
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