Avalanche @ Sharks

Who will WIN this matchup?

Colorado Avalanche (38-29-14)

@ San Jose Sharks (45-27-9)

Starting Goalies:

Semyon Varlamov (COL): Confirmed

Martin Jones (SJ): Confirmed

Current odds:

Colorado Avalanche: (+140)

San Jose Sharks: (-160)

• The Colorado Avalanche and San Jose Sharks are riding distinctly different waves of momentum heading into the postseason, with the former riding a 10-game point streak (8-0-2) to secure its second straight playoff appearance. The Avalanche aim to keep rolling along in the season finale on Saturday when they visit the Sharks, who had dropped nine of their 10 (1-8-1) before winning their last outing. Nathan MacKinnon extended his point streak to six games (three goals, four assists) after setting up defenseman Erik Johnson’s goal 1:49 into overtime in Colorado’s riveting 3-2 victory over Winnipeg on Thursday. The 23-year-old MacKinnon has a career-high 98 points and sits two shy of becoming the first Avalanche player to reach triple digits since Hall of Famer Joe Sakic accomplished the feat in 2006-07.

• While Colorado resides one point behind Dallas for the top wild-card spot, San Jose temporarily stopped the bleeding ahead of its playoff showdown versus Vegas with a 3-2 victory at Edmonton on Thursday. “We won, I’m not going to overthink it,” Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said. “It was a tough game to play on both ends with the situations everyone is in. … I thought we did some good stuff that we can use next week in the playoffs.”

• Tyson Barrie matched a career high by scoring his 14th goal during the second period of Thursday’s game, with his personal-best 59th point serving as the most by an Avalanche defenseman since Hall of Famer Ray Bourque during the team’s 2000-01 Stanley Cup-winning season. Philipp Grubauer turned aside 17 shots in the first period and 34 overall on Thursday to improve to 7-0-2 in his last nine starts. “At this time of the year, you need exceptional goaltending,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “Average goaltending just isn’t good enough, and we’ve been getting that, our goaltenders have been giving us a chance to win every night.”

• Defenseman Brent Burns scored and set up a goal against the Oilers to boost his point total to 81, with five of those (one goal, four assists) coming in two encounters against the Avalanche. Burns also became the sixth player in NHL history to reach 80 points in a season for the first time at age 34 or older. Gustav Nyquist, who will play in his 500th career NHL game on Saturday, also scored against Edmonton to record his ninth point with San Jose since being acquired from Detroit.

• San Jose RW Marcus Sorensen scored twice in a 4-3 win against Colorado on March 1.

• Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog notched three assists in the recent meeting with the Sharks.

• San Jose captain Joe Pavelski has collected two goals and four assists in the season series with Colorado.