Pre-game vs Buffalo - Mar 7, 2007

The romp through the Northeast continues tonight as the Avalanche are welcomed to HSBC arena. Both teams are on a nice roll at the moment, Buffalo with 3 in a row and the Avs with 4 in a row. They've both done this despite having an unfortunate set of injuries plaguing them. Buffalo has the worst of it but their AHL fill-ins have done a commendable job of solving that problem. I'm sure Buffalo is hoping that this streak of injuries is over and everyone will be healed up by playoff time.

It just wouldn't be right to have a post lately that doesn't mention Paul Stastny's point-scoring streak. He sits at 16 games right now which tied his father's franchise record and puts him one game shy of tying Teemu Selanne's NHL rookie record. His latest run has him a mere 6 points shy of Evgeni Malkin in the rookie scoring race. Not too shabby for a kid who didn't have any hype surrounding him other than being the son of Peter Stastny. Actually, I still think that's what most people in the media talk about when bringing him up.

I'd expect Peter Budaj to get the start tonight. Although he made some great saves last night, he wasn't terribly busy so he should be good to go. He was the NHL.com third star for the week and is on a 4-game winning streak at the moment. During that streak, he has a .946 save pct and a GAA of about 1.5. That's about all you can ask from a goaltender I think!

From the Buffalo side, it looks like the Avalanche will face Miller and Conklin will be in against the Wild. And it appears that Chris Drury will be in the lineup tonight after suffering from a concussion for the past 4 games. So that's 3 pieces of unlucky news for the Avalanche right there but this is still a winnable game.

Injuries
*deep breath*

Brisebois - back, LTI
Leopold - wrist, IR
Turgeon - calf, IR
Svatos - groin, day-to-day
Skrastins - knee, day-to-day

Afinogenov - wrist, IR
Connolly - concussion, IR
Drury - concussion, day-to-day
Gaustad - ankle, IR
Kotalik - knee, IR
Paille - finger, IR
Peters - upper body, day-to-day
Spacek - hand, IR

Hot
Stastny has 13 in 8, Hejduk has 4 in 2, Richardson and Laperriere have 4 in 3, Liles has 5 in 6.

Hecht has 7 in 3, Roy has 6 in 3, Briere and Pomminville have 9 in 6, Stafford and Vanek have 8 in 5.

Cold
Brunette has 0 in 3.

Goaltenders
Peter Budaj - 22-15-4, 2.74 GAA, .906 save pct
Ryan Miller - 32-12-4, 2.67 GAA, .913 save pct

Standings
Colorado - 33-29-5, 4th in NW, 9th in West
Buffalo - 44-16-5, 1st in NE, 1st in East