Eurolanche

Blues goalie Allen gets start vs Avs

Season series: The St. Louis Blues won four of five games against the Colorado Avalanche last season, including all three at Scottrade Center. Two of St. Louis' four wins came in a shootout and overtime. Right wing Vladimir Tarasenko had three goals and an assist for the Blues; defenseman Erik Johnson scored three goals and had two assists for Colorado.

Avalanche team scope: Despite a heavy workload for goalie Semyon Varlamov against the Nashville Predators on Saturday (34 saves in a 3-2 win), Colorado coach Patrick Roy said Varlamov would probably start against St. Louis. Forward Gabriel Landeskog (back) has missed back-to-back games and is questionable for Sunday. It's the second of a three-game road trip for the Avalanche that concludes at the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday. "We've got a lot of character on that team," defenseman Francois Beauchemin said. "We lost some big games early, but we know the situation we're in and who we're playing against in the next few games. Those are games we'll have to win if we want to keep getting in the race."

Blues team scope: Jake Allen, who shut out the Dallas Stars with 26 saves in a 3-0 victory Saturday, will start again Sunday. St. Louis got a goal and an assist from David Backes on Saturday, but the Blues captain is cognizant of the quick turnaround. "You enjoy this for a couple more minutes and then put it behind us to play Colorado [Sunday] on short rest for everybody," Backes said. Blues coach Ken Hitchcock is curious to see how much gas his team has in the tank after an emotional win against the Stars. "This win took a lot out of people," Hitchcock said. "Hopefully Colorado's win took a lot out of them, but this win took a lot out of people. We'll see how our energy is [Sunday], but we have the blueprint that we know what it looks like and what it feels like, so we've got something to draw on now. We haven't been able to draw on anything really since we played Winnipeg (on Nov. 16). That's the last time we had something to draw on, a little bit against the Islanders (last Friday), but it's been a long time. We've just been playing hockey. We've got something to draw on now, now we know what it looks like, and we can really build off this hopefully."

-- by Louie Korac for NHL.com --