The Colorado Avalanche will ring in the holidays in their final match before the Christmas break against the Utah Mammoth. Home-ice advantage should play a key role for Colorado as it has all season long, particularly leading into the three-day break.

For the Avs, this will already be the third matchup of the season against the newly named Mammoth. The teams have split the season series thus far, with Colorado winning in their home opener and Utah winning in overtime soon after.

 

Colorado Avalanche (26–2–7, 59 pts)

The Avs took care of business against a red-hot Minnesota Wild team on Sunday evening in a 5–1 final. Cale Makar took down Quinn Hughes in the first game of this new rivalry, outscoring him 3–0 in the end.

It stopped a seven-game win streak and kept their lead atop the heavily contested Central Division. Against a slumping Utah side, the Avs will look to eclipse 60 points before the holiday break.

After ringing the post multiple times in the Twin Cities, Nathan MacKinnon and company will look to find more twine. Expect the same lineup with similar efforts across the board, including perhaps another look at top-liner Gabriel Landeskog.

Projected Lines

Gabriel Landeskog – Nathan MacKinnon – Martin Necas
Artturi Lehkonen – Brock Nelson – Valeri Nichushkin
Parker Kelly – Ross Colton – Victor Olofsson
Joel Kiviranta – Jack Drury – Gavin Brindley

Devon Toews – Cale Makar
Josh Manson – Brent Burns
Samuel Girard – Sam Malinski

Scott Wedgewood
Mackenzie Blackwood

Utah Mammoth (18–17–3, 39 pts)

Utah is coming off a big 4–3 overtime win against a fellow Central Division rival in the Winnipeg Jets. Their victory on Sunday has them holding on to the second and final wild card spot in the Western Conference.

The Mammoth started the year hot and was in the running atop the division. But a fall back to reality has hurt them, and they’ve gone 5–5 in their last 10 games.

Nick Schmaltz and Clayton Keller started the year scoring at will. Since then, Schmaltz and Keller have slowed down. Logan Cooley’s long-term injury also didn’t help them. Help from JJ Peterka and leading defenseman Mikhail Sergachev could propel them to a big upset win before ringing in the break, however.

Projected Lines

Clayton Keller – Nick Schmaltz – JJ Peterka
Lawson Crouse – Barrett Hayton – Dylan Guenther
Michael Carcone – Jack McBain – Daniil But
Liam O’Brien – Kevin Stenlund – Alex Kerfoot

Mikhail Sergachev – Sean Durzi
Nate Schmidt – John Marino
Ian Cole – Nick Desimone

Karel Vejmelka
Vitek Vanecek

Game Details

Time: 7:00 p.m. MT

Watch: Altitude, Altitude+, Utah16, ESPN+ (Out of Market Only)

Listen: Altitude Sports Radio 92.5 FM/AM 950