{"id":146872,"date":"2026-03-24T11:30:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T11:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/146872\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T11:30:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T11:30:11","slug":"game-preview-colorado-avalanche-pittsburgh-penguins-3-24-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/146872\/","title":{"rendered":"Game Preview: Colorado Avalanche @ Pittsburgh Penguins 3\/24\/2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Who: Colorado Avalanche (46-13-10, 102 points, 1st place Central Division) @ Pittsburgh Penguins (35-19-16, 86 points, 2nd place Metropolitan Division)<\/p>\n

How to Watch: Locally broadcast on Sportsnet Pittsburgh and Altitude Sports, streaming on ESPN+<\/p>\n

Pens\u2019 Path Ahead: The Penguins are hitting the road to play the Ottawa Senators on Thursday night before returning home for a matchup with the Dallas Stars on Saturday. Then comes a back-to-back set with major Eastern Conference playoff race implications as the Penguins take on the New York Islanders on the road Monday 3\/30 and the Detroit Red Wings at home the following day.<\/p>\n

Opponent Track: The Avalanche lost some ground to the Dallas Stars in the race for the top of the Western Conference with a recent three-game losing streak, but they\u2019ve since bounced back on their ongoing road trip with back-to-back wins over the Chicago Blackhawks and a 3-2 overtime win over the Washington Capitals on Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Season Series: Evgeni Malkin scored two goals in his return from suspension to help lead the Pens to a 7-2 win over the Avs at Ball Arena in these two team\u2019s first matchup last week.<\/p>\n

Hidden Stat: The Avalanche were the first team both to record 100 points and clinch a playoff spot in the NHL this season. This marks the ninth straight time Colorado has made a trip to the postseason, a span which includes their run to the 2022 title.<\/p>\n

Getting to know the Avalanche<\/p>\n

Valeri Nichushkin – Nathan MacKinnon – Martin Necas<\/p>\n

Gabriel Landeskog – Brock Nelson – Nazem Kadri<\/p>\n

Parker Kelly – Jack Drury – Joel Kiviranta<\/p>\n

Zakhar Bardakov – Nicolas Roy – Gavin Brindley<\/p>\n

Devon Toews \/ Sam Malinski<\/p>\n

Josh Manson \/ Brent Burns<\/p>\n

Goalies: Scott Wedgewood, Mackenzie Blackwood<\/p>\n

Potential scratches: Artturi Lehkonen (upper body), Ross Colton (upper body), Nick Blankenburg<\/p>\n

Injured Reserve: Logan O\u2019Connor (offseason hip surgery)<\/p>\n

Former Penguin Brett Kulak has slotted in on the Avalanche\u2019s top pairing alongside Cale Makar with the team experimenting with breaking up the famously successful Toews\/Makar duo. Kulak played 20:31 against Washington on Sunday, his most since joining Colorado on Feb 24.Kulak was one of the Avs\u2019 deadline additions alongside Nazem Kadri, a key part of the team\u2019s run to the 2022 Cup. Kadri has now slotted in on the second line alongside Brock Nelson and has four points (two goals, two assists) in seven games since the trade.Gabriel Landeskog, who had been sidelined with a lower-body injury since March 6, returned to the Avs\u2019 lineup for Sunday\u2019s matchup against the Washington Capitals in time to score a goal. Landeskog\u2019s presence gives Colorado a different feel from the last PIT\/COL game where the Avs used an 11 forward\/7 defensemen lineup.Artturi Lehkonen (upper body injury), Ross Colton (upper body injury) and Logan O\u2019Connor (who has yet to make his season debut after undergoing hip surgery<\/a> last June, are traveling with the Avs on their current five-game road trip. Those three will be with the team in Pittsburgh, per NHL.com\u2019s Tracey Myers<\/a>, although it\u2019s not clear yet if they\u2019ll be available to play. Whether they return for Tuesday\u2019s game or not, the Avs will be hoping to get them back alongside Landeskog ahead of the postseason.The Avs have been riding one of the best goalie tandems in the NHL this season in Mackenzie Blackwood and Scott Wedgewood, although both got shelled in the Avs\u2019 7-2 loss to the visiting Pens last week. Blackwood has gotten the team\u2019s last two starts, winning both Friday\u2019s game over the Chicago Blackhawks and Sunday against the Washington Capitals in his most recent two outings.\"\"<\/a>The Avs\u2019 power play has been inconsistent this season despite having the advantage of rolling out Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar. The unit went 0-for-2 on Sunday against the Washington Capitals and ranks 28th in the NHL with a 16.7 percent success rate so far this season.Colorado has made up for that, of course, at even strength. The Avalanche lead the NHL<\/a> with 183 goals for at 5v5 heading into Tuesday. (For what it\u2019s worth, the Pens rank fourth with 141 goals at even strength).MacKinnon scored a goal against the Pens last week and added three assists in a game against Chicago but was held without a point against the Capitals. He now sits five points behind Tampa\u2019s Nikita Kucherov (119) in the scoring race. Connor McDavid (116) is just ahead of MacKinnon as well.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Rickard Rakell – Sidney Crosby – Bryan Rust<\/p>\n

Egor Chinakhov – Tommy Novak – Evgeni Malkin<\/p>\n

Anthony Mantha – Ben Kindel – Justin Brazeau<\/p>\n

Elmer Soderblom – Connor Dewar – Noel Acciari<\/p>\n

Parker Wotherspoon \/ Erik Karlsson<\/p>\n

Ryan Graves \/ Connor Clifton<\/p>\n

Goalies: Stuart Skinner, Arturs Silovs<\/p>\n

Potential Scratches: Ilya Solovyov, Blake Lizotte (injured), Kevin Hayes, Ryan Shea (day-to-day upper body injury)<\/p>\n

IR: Filip Hallander, Caleb Jones<\/p>\n

Ville Koivunen was re-assigned to the WBS Penguins on Sunday.Ryan Shea, who exited Saturday\u2019s matchup against the Winnipeg Jets after taking a hard hit from Adam Lowry, missed Sunday\u2019s game with what the Penguins described as a day-to-day upper-body injury. The Penguins had a scheduled off day yesterday, we\u2019ll have to see this morning during the gameday skate if Shea is able to take the ice or if an update will be provided about his status.Ryan Graves drew into the lineup for the first time in two months in Shea\u2019s place. He immediately had an impact, although it wasn\u2019t a positive one, by taking a penalty less than 30 seconds into Sunday\u2019s matchup and getting the Carolina Hurricanes\u2019 dangerous power play on the ice.Bryan Rust is riding a seven-game point streak (5G+6A).\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Erik Karlsson\u2019s next assist will push him past his former teammate Daniel Alfredsson for career helpers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Who: Colorado Avalanche (46-13-10, 102 points, 1st place Central Division) @ Pittsburgh Penguins (35-19-16, 86 points, 2nd place…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146873,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1446,73,75,74],"class_list":["post-146872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-general","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}