3. Taking advantage of T-Mobile
The Golden Knights are 4-2 at T-Mobile Arena this postseason, a rare example of success for a home team in a postseason that has seen the road team have the upper hand. Road teams are 38-33 entering Sunday.
For Vegas, the recipe for success is simple — win two of three at home in this series, and it’ll punch a ticket to the Stanley Cup Final for the third time since entering the NHL for the 2017-18 season.
“We’ve got to come home and really take advantage of this home ice and dig in,” Hanifin said. “Game 3’s going to be huge.”
Avalanche projected lineup
Gabriel Landeskog — Nathan MacKinnon — Martin Necas
Ross Colton — Nazem Kadri — Nicolas Roy
Artturi Lekhonen — Brock Nelson — Valeri Nichushkin
Parker Kelly — Jack Drury — Logan O’Connor
Devon Toews — Sam Malinski
Brett Kulak — Brent Burns
Nick Blankenburg — Josh Manson
Scott Wedgewood
Mackenzie Blackwood
Scratched: Zakhar Bardakov, Isak Posch, Jack Ahcan, Joel Kiviranta
Injured: Cale Makar (upper body)
Golden Knights projected lineup
Ivan Barbashev — Jack Eichel — Mark Stone
Brett Howden — William Karlsson — Mitch Marner
Colton Sissons — Tomas Hertl — Pavel Dorofeyev
Cole Smith — Nic Dowd — Keegan Kolesar
Brayden McNabb — Shea Theodore
Noah Hanifin — Rasmus Andersson
Kaedan Korczak — Dylan Coghlan
Carter Hart
Adin Hill
Scratched: Reilly Smith, Ben Hutton, Jaycob Megna, Braeden Bowman, Akira Schmid, Brandon Saad
Injured: Jeremy Lauzon (upper body)
Status report
Bednar said, “You’ll have to wait and see” when asked about Makar’s availability; the defenseman has yet to play in this series. … Vegas will not hold a morning skate. Stone, a forward, has missed five straight games and is also questionable. … Lauzon, a defenseman, could miss his ninth straight game.
