CENTENNIAL - Nothing much had changed at Avalanche practice Wednesday.

Colorado was preparing to play yet another "must-win" game, this one tonight in Phoenix against the Coyotes (8 MDT, Altitude).

The Avalanche has faced must- win games for the past month, but the situation is a bit more desperate now: With only six games remaining, Colorado trails Calgary by seven points in the battle for the Western Conference's eighth and final playoff spot.

Despite going 10-1-2 in its past 13 games, the Avalanche must win all six of its remaining games to put pressure on the Flames.

"We know where we stand," Avalanche forward Brett McLean said. "We know we have to win six straight games. We are confident that we can do that. For a month now, we have known that we have to win every single night. The pressure has been there, and it will continue to be there.

"I think our focus now is to make sure we put ourselves in a position that we are putting the pressure on Calgary."

Then there are the two games with the Flames, Tuesday in Calgary and April 8 at the Pepsi Center.

"There are still four points up for grabs against Calgary. Those two games are still huge," McLean said. "We obviously need a little bit of help. We just have to take care of business. The numbers don't look great, but we feel pretty good about our game right now.

"That's all we can worry about. We are frustrated about the way we played two or three months ago, but that can't affect things now."

A six-game winning streak wouldn't be unusual for Colorado. Since moving to Denver before the 1995-96 season, the Avalanche has put together winning streaks of six games or more 11 times.

"The numbers haven't really looked good the whole time," forward Andrew Brunette said. "We just have to win the next game and let everything else take care of itself. Anything can happen."

Brunette is right.

If the Flames gain two points on the Avalanche in the next two games, Colorado would be eliminated from the playoffs.

But if Colorado could climb to four to six points of the Flames before the teams' game Tuesday, the Avalanche would have a legitimate chance to catch the Flames.

Colorado and Calgary end the regular season April 8 in a game that originally was scheduled for Dec. 21 but was postponed because of snow.

"I think we still have a chance to get in if we win six out of the next six or five of the next six," Avalanche center Tyler Arnason said. "If we didn't play Calgary, I'd say we really don't have very much of a chance at all, but since we play them twice, we have a chance."

The Flames, who are at Minnesota tonight, and Avalanche play on the same nights the rest of the season.

"We have to win all six games and hope for some help, too," forward Milan Hejduk said. "We have something to play for. We'll see what happens. If we can win and they lose at Minny, we'll be within five points."

Avalanche vs. Flames

• If the Flames gain two points on the Avalanche in the next two games, Colorado would be eliminated from playoff contention.

• The Avalanche must stay eight points back of the Flames heading into the teams' April 3 meeting in Calgary to have a mathematical chance of catching them.

• It would take four consecutive wins by the Avalanche and four straight losses by the Flames for the teams to end up tied in points. In that scenario, the first tiebreaker is wins.

• If Colorado could climb to four points or possibly six before its game Tuesday at Calgary, the Avalanche would have a legitimate chance to catch the Flames because two of their remaining four games are against Calgary.

Avalanche at Coyotes

• When: 8 MDT tonight.

• Where: Glendale (Ariz.) Arena.

• TV/radio: Altitude; KKFN-AM (950).

• Leading scorers

Colorado (39-30-7) G A P

C Joe Sakic 34 56 90

LW Andrew Brunette 25 51 76

C Paul Stastny 25 44 69

RW Milan Hejduk 30 32 62

C Tyler Arnason 16 30 46

Coach: Joel Quenneville

Phoenix (29-42-5) G A P

RW Shane Doan 26 25 51

RW Owen Nolan 16 22 38

D Ed Jovanovski 11 18 29

D Zbynek Michalek 4 24 28

C Steven Reinprecht 7 20 27

Coach: Wayne Gretzky

• Injuries: Colorado - D Patrice Brisebois (back surgery), D Jordan Leopold (wrist) and C Pierre Turgeon (calf) are on injured reserved. Phoenix - Jovanovski (abdominal surgery), C Patrick Fischer (abdominal surgery), C Dave Scatchard (concussion) and C Mike Ricci (neck) are on injured reserved.

• Sidelight: Sakic (1,579 points) needs one point to move past Ray Bourque and into ninth place on the all-time NHL scoring list. He needs one goal to move into 15th place on the all-time goal-scoring list. He is tied with Dino Ciccarelli at 608 goals.

• Notes: Quenneville wasn't available after practice to say whether Jose Theodore or Peter Budaj would start in goal tonight. . . . Phoenix, which has the third-worst home record in the league (16-18-3), has gone 2-6-2 in its past 10 home games.

bentonj@RockyMountainNews.com

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