NHL Preview: Pittsburgh Penguins (49-24-5, 103 pts) vs. Colorado Avalanche (50-21-6, 106 pts)
By Andrew Dill
Oct 21, 2013; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Pittsburgh Penguins center Sidney Crosby (87) handles the puck as Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon (29) defends during the second period at the CONSOL Energy Center. The Colorado Avalanche won 1-0. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports
The Colorado Avalanche (50-21-6, 106 pts) are coming off of a statement win over the St. Louis Blues Saturday afternoon, defeating the Central Division leaders by the final score of 4-0. It was a scrappy, playoff-type game which led to a lot of penalty minutes. However, Avalanche goaltender Semyon Varlamov was outstanding in net, stopping 31-of-31 shots for his second shutout of the season. Paul Stastny would lead the offensive attack for the Avalanche, scoring one goal while adding two assists.
What: NHL Preview: vs.
When: Sunday, April 6th
Where: Pepsi Center
Time: 8:00 PM ET, 6:00 PM MT
TV: Altitude Sports
This is the second and final meeting between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Colorado Avalanche as they last met back on Oct. 21st. Colorado would win the game in a 1-0 shutout as Jean-Sebastien Giguere cooled off the Penguins attack. He would stop 34-of-34 shot attempts, picking up the victory in Colorado’s ninth game of the season. Gabriel Landeskog would score the game-winning goal 5:26 into the second period as the Avalanche picked up an early road win.
With the win over the St. Louis Blues on Saturday, Colorado reached the 50-win plateau for just the second time in franchise history. Here is what head coach Patrick Roy had to say about his team’s power-play and penalty-kill on Saturday:
"“Our power play was sharp, penalty kill was rock solid, goaltending was phenomenal again,” Roy said. “I just felt like we dominated them.”"
The Avalanche will have to go toe-to-toe with one of the games best players in Sidney Crosby. The former first-overall pick back in the 2005 draft is lighting up the stat-sheet this season. He currently leads the NHL in points (102) and assists (66). He will try to lead his team past one of the top goaltenders in the game this season in Semyon Varlamov. Varlamov currently leads the NHL in wins (40) and is fourth in save percentage (.927%).