Gameday Thread: Wild at Avalanche (8 p.m.)

Five-win streak versus four-win streak. 3rd-ranked PK vs 2nd-ranked PK. Each team with 86 goals for and 64 goals against. Two teams that couldn’t match up more evenly right now.

Oh, except that the Colorado Avalanche will have top defenseman Cale Makar and second-pairing blueliner Bowen Byram back from injury, while the Wild will be missing Marcus Foligno due to injury and Carson Soucy due to suspension.

And there’s the little thing about the power play (Avs ranked 13th at 23%, Wild ranked *cough* last at 8.1%), but let’s not focus on that.

Let’s focus on tonight’s matchup between two teams that could very well meet in the first round in the playoffs in just a few short months!

Talbot’s in the net for the Wild, per @Sarah_McLellan of the Star Tribune. Grubauer in net for the Avs per everyone everywhere.

Wild at the rival Avalanche, 8 p.m. central from Bell Arena in Denver.

Lets. Fracking. Go.

Minnesota Wild at Colorado Avalanche

When: 8:00 p.m. CT

Where: Bell Arena

TV: Fox Sports North

Radio: KFAN 100.3 FM

Projected Lineups

Colorado Avalanche

Landeskog - MacKinnon - Rantanen

Saad - Kadri - Burakovsky

Nichushkin - Jost - Donskoi

Calvert - Bellemare - O’Connor

Makar - Toews

Girard - Byram

MacDonald - Graves

Grubauer

Miska

Minnesota Wild

Kaprizov - Rask - Zuccarello

Greenway - Hartman - Fiala

Parise - Eriksson Ek - Bjugstad

Sturm - Bonino - Johnson

Suter - Spurgeon

Brodin - Dumba

Hunt* - Cole

Talbot

Kahkonen

* - Brad Hunt gets the start for Carson Soucy, who is serving his one-game suspension for charging Conor Garland of the Arizona Coyotes