Colorado Avalanche Vs Minnesota Wild
Time: 27 Nov 2009 at 2:00 PM ET
League: NHL – United States of America
Last 10 matches: Avalanche 4-4-2; Wild 4-3-3
Each team comes off a Wednesday night loss in which it managed to gain one point. The Avalanche rallied from a 2-0 deficit to take a 3-2 lead, but ultimately lost 4-3 in overtime to the red-hot Nashville Predators, who won their seventh in a row. The Wild battled the Boston Bruins to a 1-1 deadlock through regulation and overtime before dropping a 2-1 decision in the shootout.
Its the second of six meetings this season and the opener of a home-and-home that sees the Wild travel back with the Avalanche to Colorado for a game Saturday night at the PepsiCenter. Minnesota prevailed 3-2 in a shootout on Oct. 21 at XcelEnergyCenter, with Mikko Koivu tying the game late in regulation with a power-play goal and winning it with the only successful attempt in the penalty-shot tiebreaker. Niklas Backstrom made 33 saves and stopped all three shootout tries by Colorado.
Avalanche captain Adam Foote (jaw) has missed the last four games, and fellow blueliner Kyle Cumiskey was out against the Predators with an injured foot. Forward Matt Hendricks (groin) is on injured reserve but could begin skating soon. Defenseman Ruslan Salei remains out with a back injury. … Just when it seemed the Wild were starting to get healthy, the injury bug started biting again. Forward Martin Havlat missed the Bruins game with a hamstring issue. Forwards Petr Sykora and Pierre-Marc Bouchard and defenseman Brent Burns all remain out with concussions. We will post information about results of this match..