Colorado is back on home ice and will use the fans' energy to its advantage.
The Colorado Avalanche are back on home ice with a split from the first two games against the Winnipeg Jets at the Canada Life Centre.
While it is an advantage for the Avs to use the fans' energy at Ball Arena, it can also be helpful for the Jets to have less pressure outside of their own building.
"I think it gives us energy — that's what we try to feed off. It gets really loud and we're happy to have fans as loud as we do and as passionate as they are. So I think it's (an) advantage, should be, like every home game, you know. They probably felt the same way in Winnipeg," Mikko Rantanen said.
The Avalanche had the best home record in the NHL for the regular season but that does not necessarily correlate for the playoffs.
"We know the atmosphere in here (will) be crazy again tonight and our guys certainly like playing at home and they've shown that over the course of the regular season," head coach Jared Bednar said. "But (the) playoffs is a different animal. You know, like it's a whole new season now. It's the same opponent over and over and we'll take their support. I know that they'll be excited to be able to watch us play a playoff game here after a long, hard-fought season."
Bednar said there were a few things in both matchups — that he also saw during the regular season — that his team needed to work on to sharpen their game.
"We've got a really good feel how they play and them us. But there's details within our defending that we feel are really important. It's not necessarily exclusive to the Jets," Bednar said. "It's a little bit more about some of the things that we've talked about all year long that have helped us at times and hurt us at others. It's about dialing those in and trying to be perfectionists and hold a high standard when it comes to those things."
Second-line center Casey Mittelstadt is excited to play his first playoff game on home ice and said his team's defensive play is important to get a win.
"The key for us is always just limiting their chances, and being good defensively," Mittelstadt said. "We're going to get our chances offensively and we're going to make plays, but it's more a matter of how hard we defend and keeping pucks out of our net."
The Jets tied the Florida Panthers in the regular season for fewest goals against with 198. As the playoffs are a different season, the Avalanche have scored nearly three times as many goals in two games versus the Jets than they did in the three regular-season matchups.
Projected lineup
Bednar said Samuel Girard skated well at morning skate but will be a game time decision.
Valeri Nichushkin — Nathan MacKinnon — Mikko Rantanen
Artturi Lehkonen — Casey Mittelstadt — Zach Parise
Miles Wood — Ross Colton — Joel Kiviranta
Andrew Cogliano — Yakov Trenin — Brandon Duhaime
Devon Toews — Cale Makar
Sean Walker — Josh Manson
Caleb Jones — Jack Johnson
Alexandar Georgiev
Justus Annunen
The puck is scheduled to drop at 8 p.m. MT but due to national broadcast, it will be closer to 8:30 p.m. MT.
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