By The Associated Press

Colorado Avalanche (29-26-12, ninth in the Western Conference) vs. Dallas Stars (34-27-5, seventh in the Western Conference)

Dallas; Thursday, 8:30 p.m. EST

BOTTOM LINE: Mikko Rantanen leads Colorado into a matchup with Dallas. He's fifth in the league with 85 points, scoring 29 goals and recording 56 assists.

The Stars have gone 20-10-2 in home games. Dallas has given up 36 power-play goals, killing 82 percent of opponent chances.

The Avalanche are 8-8-3 against Central Division teams. Colorado averages 4.3 penalties per game, the most in the league. Ian Cole leads the team with 33 total penalties. In their last meeting on Dec. 15, Colorado won 6-4. Nathan MacKinnon recorded a team-high 4 points for the Avalanche in the victory.

TOP PERFORMERS: Tyler Seguin has recorded 60 total points while scoring 27 goals and adding 33 assists for the Stars. John Klingberg has recorded 8 points while scoring two goals and collecting six assists over the last 10 games for Dallas.

MacKinnon leads the Avalanche with 34 goals, adding 50 assists and totaling 84 points. Gabriel Landeskog has recorded 11 points while scoring three goals and collecting eight assists over the last 10 games for Colorado.

LAST 10 GAMES: Avalanche: 6-3-1, averaging 9 points, 3.3 goals, 5.7 assists, 4.8 penalties and 11 penalty minutes while giving up 2.1 goals per game with a .938 save percentage.

Stars: 5-5-0, averaging 5.9 points, 2.2 goals, 3.7 assists, 3.9 penalties and 8.6 penalty minutes while giving up 2.6 goals per game with a .927 save percentage.

Stars Injuries: Mats Zuccarello: out (broken arm), Radek Faksa: day to day (upper body).

Avalanche Injuries: Matt Nieto: day to day (lower body), Nikita Zadorov: day to day (upper body).

The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by HERO Sports, and data from Sportradar.

Copyright 2019 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.