Avalanche vs. Coyotes, Game 71: Lines, Notes & How to Watch

The Arizona Coyotes put a scare into the Colorado Avalanche the last time they were at Ball Arena. The Avalanche aren’t the only team they’ve made life difficult for recently.

Friday night is the first of two straight games against the pesky Coyotes, and the Avalanche will get some reinforcements back for the game.

Both Cale Makar and Erik Johnson will return to the lineup for the Avalanche. Makar will go back to running the top powerplay unit, and Johnson will immediately step back into a penalty killing role for the team.

Don’t expect any changes up front for the Avalanche, which means Alex Newhook will stay in the top six. I spoke to him after morning skate about how he felt he handled the move up from the fourth line.

“I felt good,” Newhook told me. “I’ve been trying to do my best to make the most of the opportunity that I’ve had recently. I was excited and ready for the bump up the lineup, and felt good. Obviously, it would have been nice to get a couple, but thought I had a few good looks. Just got to build off of it and keep getting better.”

Alexandar Georgiev is expected to start in net.

A key for the Avalanche will be slowing down the red-hot Clayton Keller. Since Feb. 1, only Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon have more points than the Coyotes winger. He’s already set a career high with 78 points this season, and is only eight points away from breaking the Coyotes record for points in a season.

These two teams will meet again on Sunday for the last time this year.

Expected Colorado Avalanche Lines

Denis Malgin – Nathan MacKinnon – Mikko Rantanen

Alex Newhook – J.T. Compher – Valeri Nichushkin

Andrew Cogliano – Lars Eller – Logan O’Connor

Matt Nieto – Darren Helm – Alex Galchenyuk

Defense

Devon Toews – Cale Makar

Samuel Girard – Bowen Byram

Jack Johnson – Erik Johnson

Goalies

Alexandar Georgiev

Jonas Johansson

Expected Arizona Coyotes Lines, per DailyFaceoff.com

Schmaltz – Hayton – Keller

Maccelli – McBain – Crouse

Kellemen – Boyd – Fischer

O’Brien – Dauphin – Imama

Defense:

Valimaki – Kesselring

Nemeth – Moser

Mackey – Soderstrom

Goalies:

Vejmelka

Prosvetov

Special Teams

Colorado Avalanche Power Play: 24.9%, 4th in NHL

Colorado Avalanche Penalty Kill: 78.8%, 17th in NHL

Arizona Coyotes Power Play: 19.5%, 23rd in NHL

Arizona Coyotes Penalty Kill: 76.3%, 21st in NHL

How to Watch

TV: Altitude TV, ESPN+

Radio: Altitude Sports Radio 92.5

Game Time: 7:00 PM MST