Time: Thursday, December 31, 2009 at 7:00 PM ET
League: NHL – United States of America

Last 10 matches: Colorado 7-3-0; Detroit 5-4-1
Colorado’s Wojtek Wolski is 5-10-15 in 13 games this month. He’s tied for the team lead with 15 goals. … Wings goaltender Jimmy Howard has been getting the bulk of the playing time in place of Chris Osgood. He’s allowed just two goals in his last two games and is 12-8-2 with a 2.26 goals-against average and .921 save percentage. Todd Bertuzzi is 3-2-5 in his last five games.Colorado was outshot 30-20 at Ottawa, the 29th time in 38 games that the Avs have been outshot but they are 17-7-5 in those games. The Avs are also 13-2-6 in one-goal games. … Detroit is 49-for-52 on the penalty kill in its last 16 games, but the power play is just 6-for-66 in the last 17.
Colorado’s Marek Svatos is still bothered by a groin injury. Defenseman Kyle Cumiskey and Ruslan Salei and forward Ryan Jones are on IR. Detroit is still without several regulars, including Henrik Zetterberg and Johan Franzen, though the Wings did get center Valtteri Filppula back over the weekend.
The Wings and Avs are meeting for the third time this season, but haven’t seen each other since playing twice on consecutive Saturdays in late October. Colorado won both, beating the Red Wings 4-3 in a shootout at Detroit on Oct. 17 and 3-1 at home seven days later. Colorado has won five of the last six meetings after losing 12 of the previous 14. Highlights, live score and results will be available soon..