the first meeting between the

The Colorado Avalanche are looking to take advantage of a home-heavy stretch and figure to have the right club visiting them next. Bruins Jerseys 2020 . The Edmonton Oilers will try to avoid a team-worst 12-game road slide in the first meeting between the Western Conferences two last-place teams Friday night. Colorado (14-15-8) beat Philadelphia 4-3 at home in overtime Wednesday on Ryan OReillys winner. OReilly has four points in his last four games to bring his season total to 21. Scoring a goal and contributing to a win is something Ive been missing a lot lately, so definitely to have that is a relief and something Ive got to continue to bring, OReilly said. The Avalanche, last in the Central Division, began a stretch of five home games out of six. We have five of our next six games at home and I thought it was important to start with a win, coach Patrick Roy said. Hopefully that will bring some confidence to our team. Confidence is in short supply for Edmonton (8-22-8), owner of the worst record in the league. The Oilers are 2-14-7 in their last 23. I think this team is pretty fragile right now, said winger Matt Fraser, claimed off waivers from Boston on Monday. I heard it a long time ago that losing can be contagious, and part of that, being a new guy in here coming from an organization like Boston, is youve got to bring that element of your game when youre not content with losing. Edmonton is 0-6-5 on its road slide after Wednesdays 4-3 overtime loss to Calgary. That matches the team record of 11 straight defeats set Dec. 23, 2009-Feb. 20, 2010, with all of those coming in regulation. Fraser scored on the power play as the Oilers were 1 for 3 after going 0 for 26 in their previous 12 road games. Edmonton has an NHL-worst 6.5 percent mark on the power play away from home. The Oilers are giving up 3.39 non-shootout goals per game for the leagues worst average, while the Avalanche allow an average of 34.0 shots on goal at home to rank last in the West. Edmonton has blown two-goal leads in its last two games, recovering to win 3-2 in a shootout over Los Angeles on Tuesday. Right now I love our starts, said winger Jordan Eberle, who ended a nine-game goal drought Wednesday. I love the way were competing for 40 minutes. It seems like the last two games, weve almost let them come at us and weather the storm and thats not how you win hockey games in this league. Edmontons Ben Scrivens is 0-4-4 with a 3.95 goals-against average in eight road starts while backup Viktor Fasth has an NHL-worst 3.50 overall GAA. Colorados Semyon Varlamovs eight regulation defeats against the Oilers match his most against any opponent. He is 1-4-0 with a 4.69 GAA in his last five starts versus them. The Avs took two of three from Edmonton last season. Game Notes: COL was 2-1-0 vs EDM last season COL has gone 4-2-0 past 6 at home vs EDM Colorado: 1-2-0 past 3 games, 11GA (won last), 6/10 on PK MacKinnon (0PTS) last 2 games Edmonton: 1-0-1 past 2 games, 5GF, 1/6 on PP Hall (2A) past 2 games Boston Bruins Shirts . Vonn punctuated her near-perfect season in perfect fashion Friday, earning her fourth overall World Cup title with a dominating giant slalom victory. Cheap Bruins Jerseys . The bout served as the headlining matchup of Saturdays "UFC Fight Night: Brown vs. Silva" event, which took place at U.S. Bank Arena in Cincinnati. It was Silva who looked well on his way to victory in the early going, delivering a pair of crushing kicks to the body that sent Brown crashing to the floor, doubled over in pain.The St. Louis Cardinals had a major need at shortstop and signed a veteran free agent who, while having PED issues, has been a potent hitter throughout his career. Numbers Game looks at the Cardinals addition of Jhonny Peralta. The Cardinals Get: SS Jhonny Peralta. Peralta, 31, has been one of the more productive shortstops in baseball since sticking as a regular in 2005. From that point, Peralta has slugged 152 home runs, behind only Hanley Ramirez, J.J. Hardy and Troy Tulowitzki in that span, and Peraltas cumulative fWAR of 23.0 ranks seventh at the position since 2005. More recently, Peralta has a fWAR of 11.0 over the last three seasons, which ranks fourth among shortstops. So, weve established that Peralta can hit the ball, but he deserves credit for fielding too. Earlier in his career, with Cleveland, Peralta typically had a negative Defensive Runs Saved and negative Ultimate Zone Rating, indications that his glovework -- and especially his range -- werent necessarily up to snuff. However, while Peralta isnt a Gold Glove candidate, hes fared significantly better in Detroit and does have a strong arm, so he doesnt pose an immediate problem in the field. He is on the north side of 30, though, so it shouldnt come as a surprise if his range becomes an issue. The main concern with Peralta is how his 2013 season was sideswiped by a 50-game suspension for use of performance-enhancing drugs. He did hit a career-high .303 in 2013, before getting suspended, with an .815 OPS that was the third-highest of his career (following a .689 OPS in 2012, his lowest in a full MLB season), so its fair to wonder whether Peralta will be as productive if hes clean. It would probably be reasonable to assume that he wont be aas productive. Wholesale Bruins Jerseys. Nevertheless, even if Peralta isnt likely to duplicate his 2013 season for the next four years, he should be an upgrade on punchless Pete Kozma at shortstop for the Cardinals. St. Louis shortstops had an OPS of .583 last season, ranking 28th, so anything resembling competent offensive play would represent an upgrade. Peralta has fared well against the National League throughout his career, hitting .301 with an .856 OPS in 156 career Inter-League games. The Tigers reacted quickly when Peralta was suspended last summer, dealing for slick-fielding Jose Iglesias, who doesnt have Peraltas bat, but is much better in the field. Peralta is signed for four years and $52-million, significant money even for a starting shortstop, particularly because of the risk that, by the end of this deal, Peralta either may not be able to play shortstop or he may simply be a liability in the field. If his bat happens to slow down at the same time, the Cardinals could really regret the length of the contract, but its easy to see the appeal in adding a middle infielder who has pop in his bat, particularly when contrasted with the relative lack of offence that the Cardinals received from their shortstops last season. If Peralta happens to hit 12-15 home runs per season and turns out to be worth 8-10 wins total over the next four years, then hes probably fulfilled his side of the deal. If hes not capable of doing that clean, then the Cardinals are going to regret rolling the dice on a player caught using performance-enhancing drugs in 2013. Scott Cullen can be reached at Scott.Cullen@bellmedia.ca and followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tsnscottcullen. For more, check out TSN Fantasy on Facebook. ' ' '