The Detroit Red Wings are on the longest winning streak of their 2011-12 season at seven games after beating the Buffalo Sabres on Friday, and they'll try to make it eight games on Sunday when they travel to the Pepsi Center to take on the Colorado Avalanche. Detroit has outscored opponents 28-12 over its last seven games, and over that stretch have won just one game by a one-goal margin. That game was the 3-2 shootout victory over the Boston Bruins to snap their 10-game winning streak.
Johan Franzen, Valtteri Flippula, Jakub Kindl and Pavel Datsyuk all lit the lamp on Friday against the Sabres. Jimmy Howard made 27 saves and the those are the usual suspects of late. Flippula in particular is riding hot right now, while Datsyuk is always riding some sort of scoring or points streak. A win over the Avalanche would mark the first time in four years that the Red Wings have won eight straight games.
Colorado struggled mightily in the month of November, going 4-10-1, but they are winning in their last two games, including a 3-2 shootout victory over the St. Louis Blues in their last outing. They're gaining a little bit of confidence, and snapping the seven-game winning streak of the Red Wings would certainly be an accomplishment. Ryan O'Reilly got the goal to tie it against St. Louis, and then converted in the shootout. He leads Colorado with 19 points, and 15 assists.
The game is set for 7:30 p.m. eastern on Sunday.