Colorado Avalanche (45-24-6, first in the Central Division) vs. San Jose Sharks (22-39-15, seventh in the Pacific Division)
San Jose, California; Thursday, 10:30 p.m. EDT
BOTTOM LINE: The San Jose Sharks host the Colorado Avalanche after Kevin Labanc’s two-goal game against the Colorado Avalanche in the Sharks’ 4-3 overtime loss.
San Jose has gone 8-20-11 at home and 22-39-15 overall. The Sharks are 7-7-10 in games decided by a goal.
Colorado has a 45-24-6 record overall and a 25-11-1 record in road games. The Avalanche have given up 204 goals while scoring 246 for a +42 scoring differential.
Thursday’s game is the third time these teams match up this season. The Avalanche won the first matchup 6-0 and also defeated the Sharks 4-3 in overtime in the last meeting.
TOP PERFORMERS: Erik Karlsson has scored 22 goals with 73 assists for the Sharks. Logan Couture has four goals and seven assists over the past 10 games.
Nathan MacKinnon has scored 34 goals with 63 assists for the Avalanche. Mikko Rantanen has five goals and 10 assists over the past 10 games.
LAST 10 GAMES: Sharks: 3-3-4, averaging 3.3 goals, 5.7 assists, 3.3 penalties and 6.6 penalty minutes while giving up 3.7 goals per game.
Avalanche: 8-2-0, averaging 3.9 goals, 6.3 assists, 3.4 penalties and 6.8 penalty minutes while giving up 2.2 goals per game.
INJURIES: Sharks: Markus Nutivaara: out (lower body), Evgeny Svechnikov: out (undisclosed), Luke Kunin: out for season (knee), Andreas Johnsson: day to day (undisclosed), Alexander Barabanov: day to day (lower-body), Jonah Gadjovich: out (upper-body).
Avalanche: Artturi Lehkonen: out (finger), Josh Manson: out (lower body), Pavel Francouz: out (lower body), Gabriel Landeskog: out (knee).
The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar