Colorado Avalanche (19-17-10) at St. Louis Blues (28-13-4), 8 p.m. (ET)
(SportsNetwork.com) - The St. Louis Blues hope to extend a seven-game point streak on Monday night as they continue their homestand against the Colorado Avalanche.
The Blues are 6-0-1 in their past seven games, giving them a two-point edge over the Chicago Blackhawks and Winnipeg Jets for second place in the Central Division. They are four points back of front-running Nashville.
St. Louis improved to 4-0-1 on a seven-game homestand with Saturday's victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs. It will conclude the residency against Nashville after the All-Star break.
Brian Elliott made 27 saves for his third shutout of the season and 28th of his career in a 3-0 win. He was tested early, making 15 saves in the opening period.
"It was a good team win tonight," he said.
Kevin Shattenkirk, Alexander Steen and T.J. Oshie scored for the Blues, with David Backes notching a pair of assists.
Steen, who also had an assist, has a goal in five straight games while amassing seven tallies and nine assists over a nine-game point streak. Backes has seven goals and 13 points over a six-game run.
The Avalanche wrap a five-game road trip tonight and have points in eight of their past 10 overall (6-2-2) to get within three points of a wild card spot in the Western Conference. They are 1-1-2 on their road trip following Saturday's shootout loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Colorado scored late to force extra time, but Tampa Bay scored twice in the tiebreaker to hand the Avs a 3-2 loss.
Nathan MacKinnon secured his club the point as he lit the lamp with 6.8 seconds remaining in the third period. He took a pass from across the crease by Gabriel Landeskog that he buried from the doorstep of the left post with Semyon Varlamov pulled for an extra attacker.
MacKinnon also assisted on Ryan O'Reilly's goal, while Varlamov made 29 saves.
"I thought we had a solid second period, we had 20 shots in the second," Avalanche head coach Patrick Roy remarked. "In the third we had plenty of chances. I thought we deserved to be rewarded with that goal in the end."
Tonight is the last of five regular-season meetings between Colorado and St. Louis. The Blues have won three of the first four as well as seven of the previous nine encounters overall.
St. Louis shut out Colorado 3-0 at home when the clubs last met on Dec. 29, giving it seven wins in the past nine played in St. Louis.
Elliott is 4-2-1 with a 2.65 goals against average and .878 save percentage in seven career meetings with the Avs, while Varlamov has posted a 6-5-2 record, 1.85 GAA, .942 save percentage and three shutouts in 13 games (12 starts) versus the Blues.