Wild vs. Avalanche, Game 7 preview: Will home ice advantage carry Colorado to Round 2?

Home ice has held strong in this first-round series between the Colorado Avalanche and Minnesota Wild. The home team has won every game in the series thus far, and hey, you know what that means: Game 7.

The Wild lost two tough games at Pepsi Center earlier in the series. One featured a blown lead in the final minute of regulation and an eventual overtime loss and another featured a blown 2-0 lead. But most neutral observers will note that Minnesota has controlled play for much of the series, while the Avalanche have leaned heavily on their top line and goaltender Seymon Varlamov.

Colorado’s leading scorer in the regular season, Matt Duchene, returned to the lineup in Game 6 following a knee injury, and he’ll likely play a big role for the Avalanche in their first elimination game under new head coach Patrick Roy. On the other side, Wild coach Mike Yeo will lean heavily on his top guns, namely Zach Parise, who had four points in Minnesota’s Game 6 win.

Zach Parise - Mikko Koivu - Charlie Coyle
Matt Moulson - Mikael Granlund - Jason Pominville
Nino Niederreiter - Erik Haula - Dany Heatley
Cody McCormick - Kyle Brodziak - Stephane Veilleux

Ryan Suter - Jonas Brodin
Jared Spurgeon - Marco Scandella
Nate Prosser - Clayton Stoner

Gabriel Landeskog - Paul Stastny - Nathan MacKinnon
Ryan O’Reilly - Matt Duchene - P.A. Parenteau
Jamie McGinn - Joey Hishon - Max Talbot
Cody McLeod - Marc-Andre Cliche - Patrick Bordeleau

Jan Hejda - Erik Johnson
Nick Holden - Andre Benoit
Ryan Wilson - Nate Guenin

Game 7, Western Conference First Round | Series tied, 3-3
9:30 p.m. ET | Pepsi Center | Denver, Colo.

Local TV: FS North (MIN) | Altitude (COL)
National TV: CNBC (USA) | TSN2, RDS (Canada)
Live online stream at NBCSports.com (USA) and TSN.ca (Canada)
More: Avalanche blog | Wild blog