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Avalanche hope to avoid West basement vs. Blue Jackets

Feb 10, 2009 - 2:39 PM Colorado (25-27-1) at Columbus (25-23-5) 7:00 p.m. EST

COLUMBUS, Ohio (Ticker) -- In the tightly packed Western Conference, the Colorado Avalanche can't afford many more losses.

The Avalanche will be looking to avoid last place in the West when they face the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday.

Colorado is clinging to a one-point cushion over the St. Louis Blues (22-24-6) at the bottom of the pack in the West, though both teams are a small winning streak away from contention with 11 teams within nine points of each other.

The Avalanche lost to the Blues, 4-1, on Saturday.

The setback ended a four-game goal scoring streak by Milan Hejduk, who leads the team with 20 tallies this season.

The Blue Jackets snapped a three-game slide with a 3-2 overtime win against the San Jose Sharks on Saturday, when Christian Brackman scored his second goal of the season with 1:33 left in the extra session.

Columbus failed in its lone chance on the power play against the Sharks, however, and ranks last in the NHL with an 11.9 power-play conversion percentage.

The Blue jackets have dominated the first three meetings between the teams, winning by a combined 14-6. Kristian Huselius has three of his 14 goals this season against the Avalanche.