Tonight at 9:30 p.m. ET, the Chicago Blackhawks (38-13-14, 90 points) and Colorado Avalanche (42-18-5, 89 points) hit the ice at the Pepsi Center in Colorado for the fifth and final meeting this season. The game can be live streamed here. Chicago fans can hear all of the action on 720 WGN while Colorado fans can do it on KRWZ 950.
These teams hit the ice with second place in the Central Division on the line as Chicago has won two straight and has a one-point lead in the standings while Colorado has won five of six and is knocking on the door. The Avalanche has won three of the four meetings against the Blackhawks, including a 4-2 win in the last contest between these teams on March 4 in Chicago.
The Blackhawks have been one of the best teams in the Western Conference all season long in defense of their Stanley Cup, but the team has struggled on the penalty kill recently.
"I think confidence is part of it," coach Joel Quenneville told NHL.com about the problems with his teams P.K. "You're always going to have some good stretches and bad stretches, and we certainly had a bad stretch for too long for us, but I like how we're trending."
The Avalanche gutted out a 3-2 victory over the Winnipeg Jets on Monday night.
"We're not out of the race for the division lead or No. 1 in the NHL," Matt Duchene, who is on an eight-game point streak, said according to NHL.com. "We're right there. We just have to keep working hard here. I mean, that's a character win [Monday]. There's no other way to describe that. Guys just played their hearts out."
Duchene leads the Avalanche with 60 points off of 21 goals and 39 assists while Gabriel Landeskog has 19 markers and 33 helpers for 52 points and Ryan O'Reilly (24 goals, 27 assists) and rookie Nathan MacKinnon(22 goals, 29 assists) each have 51 points.
Patrick Kane paces the Blackhawks with 66 points off of 28 goals and 38 assists while Patrick Sharp has 29 tallies and 34 helpers for 63 points and Jonathan Toews has seven points in five games for a total of 62 off of lighting the lamp 25 times and adding 37 assists.
Corey Crawford will likely suit up between the pipes for Chicago and is 25-11-10 with a 2.27 goals-against average and a .918 save percentage while Semyon Varlamov will likely man the crease for Colorado and is 32-12-5- with a 2.45 GAA and a .925 save percentage.
Second place in the Central Division is on the line between the Blackhawks and Avalanche when the lights come up at the Pepsi Center tonight in Colorado.
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