Pavel Francouz To Start Game 3; Kuemper Still Out

Pavel Francouz gets the start again tonight in goal for the Colorado Avalanche, as they try to take a 3-0 Western Conference finals series lead at Rogers Place.

Darcy Kuemper was not on the ice for the Avs at the morning skate. He made the trip to Edmonton, however. He missed some of Game 1 and all of Game 2 with an upper-body injury. Justus Annunen is likely to be the backup goalie tonight.

*Kuemper did do some skating after his teammates left the ice.

Jayson Megna is with the team now too.

The rest of the lineup? We’ll have to see. Jared Bednar is not saying anything on that. Andre Burakovsky, who also made the trip, was not on the ice this morning. The Oilers are expected to start Mike Smith again in net.

These won’t be the first playoff games the Avs have ever played in Rogers Place, despite not having played the Oilers in the playoffs since 1998. The Avs played here during the Covid “bubble” playoffs in 2020.

More later…we’ll have coverage from the scene in Edmonton tonight.

Kelsey Hammond contributed to this story