Game Day Preview: Avalanche @ Jets

When: Sunday, February 19, 2012

Time: 7:30 p.m. CST

Where: MTS Centre, Winnipeg, Manitoba

Records: Winnipeg Jets (28-26-6), Colorado Avalanche (29-26-4)

Television/Radio: ALT (HD),TSN-JETS/ TSN 1290 Radio

The Story:  The Winnipeg Jets will try to make it three wins in a row tonight versus the Colorado Avalanche in the second game of their current eight game homestand.

The Jets are coming off an emotional 4-2 victory over the Boston Bruins on Thursday night that gave the Jets their first pair of wins playing on back-to-back nights all regular season. With a win tonight, the Jets could move into 9th place and inch closer to the 8th and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. The Jets are currently two points behind the Toronto Maple Leafs but the Leafs would keep the 8th spot because of their edge in regulation wins (26).

The Avalanche defeated the Edmonton Oilers 3-1 Thursday night and have remained in the tight Western Conference Playoff race, just three points back of the Los Angeles Kings for the coveted 8th seed. Even though making the playoffs is a long shot for the young Avalanche, they have surprised many by keeping pace with the rest of the West pack this late in the season. Having said that, the Avalanche have only won three of their last ten games and may be a seller at the NHL Trade Deadline coming up in just over a week.

The Avalanche and Jets have already met once this season with the Jets defeating the Avalanche 4-1 back on December 27th.

Ondrej Pavelec is expected to start in goal for the Jets tonight.

Projected Jets line combinations:

Goalie:

Ondrej Pavelec

Forwards:

1st: Andrew Ladd-Bryan Little- Blake Wheeler

2nd:  Evander Kane- Alexander Burmistrov- Kyle Wellwood

3rd:  Tanner Glass- Jim Slater- Chris Thorburn

4th:  Tim Stapleton- Nikolai Antropov -Eric Fehr

Defence:

Dustin Byfuglien- Tobias Enstrom

Randy Jones-Mark Stuart

Johnny Oduya-Ron Hainsey

Offensive Leaders:

Colorado Avalanche: Ryan O’Reilly (15 goals, 29 assists, 44 points), Paul Stastny (14 goals, 23 assists, 37 points), Milan Hejduk (13 goals, 20 assists, 33 points)

Winnipeg Jets: Blake Wheeler (11 goals, 31 assists, 42 points), Evander Kane (21 goals, 14 assists, 35 points), Kyle Wellwood (11 goals, 23 assists, 34 points)

Injury Report:

Colorado Avalanche: T.J. Galiardi (upper body), Jean-Sebastien Giguere (upper-body), Peter Mueller (upper body)

Winnipeg Jets:  Zach Bogosian (day-to-day)

Who’s Next: The Jets next game is on Tuesday, February 19th, at home, against the Philadelphia Flyers (6:00 p.m. CST).

QUICKIES…..Matt Duchene returns to the Avalanche line-up tonight. He has been out since December 29th with a knee injury……