Central heavies hook up as Avs visit Blues

The top two teams in the Central Division square off when the St. Louis Blues host the Colorado Avalanche on Monday night.

The first-place Blues won the first two games of their four-game homestand, including their 12th comeback victory of the season. They erased a 3-0 third-period deficit Saturday night to beat the Chicago Blackhawks 4-3.

"We've come from behind quite a few times this year in games, so they have confidence that they can do it," Blues coach Craig Berube told reporters after the game.

"There's a lot of confidence in this room and we know if we stick with it, we're going to get rewarded," forward Jacob de la Rose told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The Blues defeated the second-place Avalanche in their first meeting this season, with Jordan Binnington stopping 17 shots and the since-injured Vladimir Tarasenko pacing the offense with a goal and two assists in a 3-1 win on Oct. 21.

The Avalanche have earned points in nine consecutive games (8-0-1), including 3-1 home-ice victories over the Philadelphia Flyers and New Jersey Devils in their last two games.

"I think it is a sign of a good team that you find ways to win games, ways to pick up points, even when you're not at your best," Avalanche defenseman Mark Barberio told NHL.com. "I think that is what happened this week, this homestand. It wasn't our best, but good teams find a way and it's a good sign."

The Avalanche have gone 13-3-1 since Nov. 7. They scored three or more goals in 15 of those games, including in each of their last 10.

Center Nathan MacKinnon scored 32 points (12 goals, 20 assists) in his last 17 games to lead that attack.

Goaltender Philipp Grubauer has recovered from his hamstring injury but served as the backup Friday night. Pavel Francouz stopped 37 of 38 shots against the Devils and is 4-0-1 in his last five starts with just four goals allowed in the four victories.

"We want to make sure we're not overplaying (Grubauer) and we're giving a guy who's won us a lot of games, enough games to make an impact on our team as well," Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. "That sets us up better. I think you're seeing more teams balance their goaltending as far as number of starts for their starter if they have that luxury. It's worked out well. Grubi, this is the second time he's been out of the lineup for the first part of the year, and Frankie's stepped up and doing great.

"For us, there is no rush to get a guy back in the lineup until he's 100 percent at that position and a lot of other positions as well."

On the Colorado blue line, defensemen Cale Makar and Erik Johnson remain sidelined by upper-body injuries. Both have resumed skating with the team with non-contact sweaters. The team recalled Anton Lindholm from the AHL to provide depth.

The Blues continue to rotate players on and off their injured list. Forwards Alexander Steen (ankle) and Zach Sanford (upper-body) are healthy again, but defenseman Carl Gunnarsson (upper body) went on injured reserve and forward Ivan Barbashev (upper body) exited Saturday night's game in the third period.

--Field Level Media