Edmonton OilersEdmonton Oilers vs. Colorado AvalancheColorado Avalanche Pick Center

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Time: 09:00 P.M. EST Venue: Pepsi Center   Last week's loss to the lowly Edmonton Oilers was a huge blow for the Colorado Avalanche's chances of returning to the playoffs. The Avalanche have responded with consecutive wins, but cannot afford to let another two points slip away in Monday night's rematch with the visiting Oilers. Colorado (35-28-12) had a three-game win streak in the series snapped with Wednesday's 4-3 loss in Edmonton. Ryan O'Reilly's goal with 15:06 remaining completed Colorado's rally from an early 3-0 deficit, but the Oilers' Derek Roy scored the tiebreaker with 9:18 left and the Avalanche couldn't take advantage of two late power plays.'' We needed these points and it is disappointing not to get them,'' Colorado defenseman Nick Holden said after the defeat. ''It was a big game for us to stay up in the standings. Not getting those points is killer. ... We need to keep pushing right to the end and hopefully we get some luck.'' Colorado bounced back a night later with a 4-1 win in Vancouver and held on for a 5-3 victory over Buffalo on Saturday. Perhaps showing some fatigue from their fourth game in six days, the Avalanche were outshot 26-10 in the final two periods and 18-7 in the third while giving up the Sabres' three scores." All we can do is enjoy playing these games, try to win them, play hard and try to do our part," forward Jarome Iginla said. "Right now, they still mean a lot in the standings. We know it'll take some great breaks and nice bounces to get in, but we're going to try to do our part." The Avalanche, who are trying to match a season-high four-game home win streak from Jan 8-30, have won in each of the last two visits from the Oilers (22-40-13) but had to go to a shootout for a 2-1 victory in the only one this season. Coach Patrick Roy planned to forgo practicing Sunday to keep his team fresh before the schedule concludes with six games against teams that are competing for a playoff spot or have already clinched one." I thought we were a little tired in the third (period on Saturday), and I thought it's good for us to have a rest," he said. "We'll have a good morning skate on Monday and be ready for the Oilers." Semyon Varlamov is expected to start after being pulled at 9:36 in the loss to Edmonton but has allowed three goals in 124-plus minutes in the back-to-back home wins over the Oilers. He's also 4-0-0 with a 1.72 goals-against average at the Pepsi Center this month. The Oilers are 0-3-2 on the road since March 1 and have allowed a combined 22 goals in the past four of those contests. Edmonton, however, beat Dallas 4-0 in its latest game Friday with backup goaltender Richard Bachman making 29 saves in his second start this season." Richard definitely deserves another start with the way he played, but we'll talk about as a staff. We'll make that decision (Monday)," coach Todd Nelson said. Ben Scrivens was in net for both games earlier this season against Colorado while Bachman has never faced the Avalanche.

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