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Tonight on NBCSN: Colorado looks to stay in playoff hunt against Minnesota

Dany Heatley, Semyon Varlamov

Colorado Avalanche goalie Semyon Varlamov, of Russia, left, stops a scoring attempt by Minnesota Wild’s Dany Heatley in the third period of an NHL hockey game, Sunday, March 4, 2012, in St. Paul, Minn. The Avalanche won 2-0. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)

AP

The Colorado Avalanche are very much in the playoff hunt out West. The Minnesota Wild are virtually toast. When the two meet up tonight in Denver (9:00 p.m. ET on NBCSN), the Wild would love to throw a wrench in the Avs’ playoff hopes.

Colorado is just one point behind the eighth place Sharks in the Western Conference playoff race and they come into tonight’s game on a relative hot streak. After beating the Wild in Minnesota on Sunday, the Avs avoided a three game losing skid. Looking at the big picture, they’re winners of five of their last seven games, but the losses were painful. Getting shutout by Columbus and blown out by Pittsburgh will do that.

The Avs come into the game with rookie stud Gabriel Landeskog providing the consistent spark for the team. He along with Ryan O’Reilly have been the surprise leaders for Colorado. Their solid all-around play have shown some of the Avalanche veterans what it’s like to play strong and win again.

With tonight’s game being in Denver, look out for Semyon Varlamov in goal where he’s been a monster. Checking out his home and road splits, perhaps he’d like to play all of his games at altitude.

The Wild, on the other hand, are having a tough go of things. Yes, I’m being polite. They’re losers of 12 of their last 15 games and their fall from grace from their lofty perch in December has been the thing of legend. They’re seven points back of the eighth spot in the West and they’re “comfortably” 13th in the conference. Gross.

It’s tough to find bright spots of late for this team. You could point to Dany Heatley leading the team in scoring, but he’s got just one goal in his last 10 games and six points in all in that span. They’re still without Mikko Koivu whose shoulder problems might keep him out the rest of the way and they’re not getting the killer goaltending they were earlier in the season thanks to Niklas Backstrom being injured as well. In short, it’s a miserable go of things.

Of course, if they decide to relish in the role of the spoiler, they could get fired up doing that. That would require making things go your way, however, and that’s something that just isn’t happening for the Wild.