Avalanche forwards roll into Anaheim on point streaks

Colorado has only lost one game at Honda Center in the last eight matchups ahead of Saturday's game against the Anaheim Ducks. 

Valeri Nichushkin has scored at least a point in the last nine games. It is a career-high for the 28-year-old forward and the longest active point streak in the NHL this season. Nichushkin has 21 points and is two goals behind team leader Mikko Rantanen with 10. 

Nathan MacKinnon is looking to continue his scoring streak as he's tallied nine points in the last six consecutive games. The elite center is four assists short of 500 for his career total. 

The team's power play has struggled this season but two of the three goals scored against the Arizona Coyotes on Thursday came on the man-advantage. MacKinnon scored his first power-play goal of the season and head coach Jared Bednar noticed the unit's effort. 

"It was the hardest-working power play that we had — the firmness in our passes and our puck movement and identifying the open man ... I want our power play on a regular basis to look like that," Bednar said after the game. "We got to find a way to elevate on all of our power plays and make it real dangerous like that."

The Avalanche dominated the Ducks 8-2 in the teams' first matchup at Ball Arena on Nov. 15. Anaheim hasn't won a game since that loss — eight in a row. 

According to Conor McGahey with Altitude Sports, Bednar confirmed that Ivan Prosvetov will start between the pipes for the Avalanche. The matchup is the first of a back-to-back as they face off against the Los Angeles Kings Sunday night. 

Bednar said he'll keep the same lineup as he had for the Coyotes game. 

Valeri Nichushkin — Nathan MacKinnon — Mikko Rantanen
Jonathan Drouin — Ryan Johansen — Tomas Tatar
Miles Wood — Ross Colton — Logan O’Connor
Andrew Cogliano — Fredrik Olofsson — Joel Kiviranta

Devon Toews — Cale Makar
Bowen Byram — Josh Manson
Jack Johnson — Caleb Jones

Ivan Prosvetov
Alexandar Georgiev