Coming off rare regulation loss, Avalanche visit sizzling Lightning

The matchup Tuesday night on Florida's Gulf Coast comes down to this: It's the NHL's best, the Colorado Avalanche, versus its hottest, the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Colorado will be playing its third game in four nights, but nothing has seemed to hamper coach Jared Bednar's dynamic club and its race to the top of the league standings.

However, the adversity that had been missing most of the season finally arrived last week in full force.

After remarkably losing only twice in regulation in the first 40 games and banking 69 points, Colorado had its 10-game winning streak squelched on Sunday. The host Florida Panthers won 2-1 in Sunrise to join the Boston Bruins and New York Islanders as the only teams to conquer the league's best in three periods.

Avalanche defenseman Devon Toews was injured in Saturday's 5-3 comeback win at Carolina and replaced Sunday by Ilya Solovyov, who was playing in his first game since Nov. 1.

Selected to Team Canada for the upcoming Winter Olympics in Italy, Toews returned to the Hurricanes game but was out against the two-time champions. He also represented Canada in last February's 4 Nations Face-Off.

The news was just as bad in Sunday's defeat as captain Gabriel Landeskog tripped and crashed head-first at full speed into the goal post. In great pain, Landeskog, who has a history of injuries that nearly ended his career, had to be assisted off the ice.

Both Toews and Landeskog have upper-body injuries and will "miss some time," Bednar said.

"Move on, keep playing, that's all you can do," the coach said. "We've been fortunate this year. We've had some injuries ... but nothing too long-term and too serious. We've got some depth, but we lost four guys this week."

Goalie Mackenzie Blackwood is on injured reserve and forward Joel Kiviranta did not travel on the three-game trip.

Thanks to Colorado's loss, the Lightning now own the best active streak in the league at seven victories, which matched their mark set from Nov. 18-29.

Defenseman Darren Raddysh had a personal-best moment when he forged his first career hat trick as Tampa Bay demolished the Sharks 7-3 on Saturday in San Jose.

That allowed them to sweep a three-game trip through California that began with wins on back-to-back nights at Anaheim and Los Angeles.

Without defenseman Victor Hedman (elbow), who ran the power play's point and hasn't played since Dec. 9, Raddysh has stepped up and performed admirably in place of the captain over his 11-game absence.

The 29-year-old Raddysh has used his powerful slapper to hit the net 12 times, tying him for the third-most goals among defensemen with the Avalanche's Cale Makar and the Islanders' Matthew Schaefer.

"It was a tough start of the year for him," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "He was trying to find his game and we were trying to find our game as a team. ... Our power play was struggling early, and we moved him up top. He's just playing with a lot of confidence and a lot of swag.

"You like to see good guys get rewarded, and he's getting rewarded. You see his shot: It's lethal."

Nikita Kucherov posted his eighth career five-point game (goal, four assists) in San Jose and reached 20 goals for the 11th season, passing Martin St. Louis for third all-time for the franchise behind Steven Stamkos (14) and Vincent Lecavalier (12).

--Field Level Media