Head coach Jared Bednar said Justus Annunen would start one of the two games on the road — and confirmed it will be against the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday night.
It was a tough 3-2 loss the last time the Colorado Avalanche faced the Chicago Blackhawks at the United Center, but they are riding the momentum of a 5-1 win over the Dallas Stars coming into Thursday's matchup.
Alexandar Georgiev will get the night off after playing — what Jared Bednar said was — one of his best games this season against the Stars. It's Justus Annunen's turn to shine for the Avs as Bednar confirmed he will start between the pipes.
Although the young Finn lost his last two starts, Bednar was not disappointed with his performance.
"We're going to play another goalie quite a bit here. And Annunen, he's put together a couple of really nice starts for us," Bednar said after practice on Wednesday. "We haven't got the results we wanted mostly because the team had some trouble scoring in Detroit. We got loose defensively in Tampa, but his outing in particular was rock solid, I thought."
With a point in this matchup, Nathan MacKinnon will hit the century mark for the second consecutive season and second time in his career. He would also become the fastest Avalanche player to reach 100 points (61 games) and the second-fastest in franchise history, just one game behind Peter Stastny (60) in 1981- 82.
MacKinnon says he does not pay much or any attention to some of the statistics and records but this should be a memorable one.
The Avalanche shutout the Blackhawks 4-0 on Oct. 19 in the home season-opening game. The two teams will face each other again back at Ball Arena on Monday.
Projected lineup
Artturi Lehkonen — Nathan MacKinnon — Mikko Rantanen
Miles Wood — Ross Colton — Logan O’Connor
Zach Parise — Ryan Johansen — Jonathan Drouin
Andrew Cogliano — Chris Wagner — Joel Kiviranta
Devon Toews — Cale Makar
Samuel Girard — Josh Manson
Jack Johnson — Bowen Byram
Justus Annunen
Alexandar Georgiev
Puck drops at 7 p.m. MT and it is a national game being televised on ESPN.
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