The Colorado Avalanche will battle the San Jose Sharks for the second time this season on Wednesday night. Colorado is riding a nine-game winning streak, while the Sharks are only two points out of the Wild Card. Goaltender Yaroslav Askarov for the Sharks is having a career year, putting up some of his best numbers since his sophomore year. Fans will see the return of Joel Kiviranta, who has not played a game because of injury since October 16. Ivan Ivan will be receiving his first recall of the season. He has two goals and four assists in 18 games with the Colorado Eagles so far this season.

Colorado Avalanche (16–1–5 37pts)

The Avalanche are coming off two rough games on the road, but held on to get victories in both games. The last game was against the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday and had to be the better of the two. Cale Makar came away with the only goal in the game, and Tristen Nielsen added an assist on the play. The assist was Nielsen’s first career NHL point. It also made the difference in the game with a steal and then shot, leading to a rebound for Makar. The win for the Avalanche was their ninth victory in a row. They are the only team in the NHL with such a streak. The shutout victory was also the first time that goaltenders in the franchise had done it on consecutive days.

Projected Lines

Artturi Lehkonen – Nathan MacKinnon – Martin Necas
Ross Colton – Brock Nelson – Gabriel Landeskog
Parker Kelly – Jack Drury – Victor Olofsson
Taylor Makar – Zakhar Bardakov – Joel Kiviranta

Devon Toews – Cale Makar
Josh Manson – Brent Burns
Samuel Girard – Sam Malinski

Mackenzie Blackwood
Scott Wedgewood

San Jose Sharks (11–9–3 25pts)

The San Jose Sharks of last season may be gone. San Jose has played 10 games since they met the Avalanche on November 1 and has won six of them. They have taken four of 10 games to overtime or beyond to gain an extra point, so they are scraping it together. On Sunday, they played the Boston Bruins and won, 3–1. Macklin Celebrini, who is third in the NHL in goals scored, tallied his 14th goal of the season. Yaroslav Askarov won his eighth game of the year, stopping 34 of 35 shots by Boston.

Projected Lines

William Eklund – Macklin Celebrini – Will Smith
Philipp Kurashev – Alexander Wennberg – Tyler Toffoli
Adam Gaudette – Ty Dellandrea – Collin Graf
Barclay Goodrow – Zack Ostapchuk – Ryan Reaves

Dmitry Orlov – Timothy Liljegren
Mario Ferraro – Shakir Mukhamadullin
Sam Dickinson – Vincent Desharnais

Yaroslav Askarov
Alex Nedeljkovic

Game Details

Time: 7:00 p.m. MT

Watch: Altitude, Altitude+, NBCBA (SJS), ESPN+ (out of market)

Listen: Altitude Sports Radio 92.5 FM/AM 950