A matchup of early-season conference powers takes place Saturday when the Eastern Conference leading Tampa Bay

TAMPA Scott Laughton Jersey , Fla. — A matchup of early-season conference powers takes place Saturday when the Eastern Conference leading Tampa Bay Lightning host the Western Conference leading Colorado Avalanche at Amalie Arena.The Lightning enter the game winners of five straight and sit four points ahead of the Toronto Maple Leafs atop the conference standings. The Avalanche have won seven of their past eight on the road and sit tied with Nashville on top of the West standings.It will be a matchup of Tampa Bay’s impressive depth up and down the lineup against Colorado’s trio of Mikko Rantanen, Nathan MacKinnon and Gabriel Landeskog, which will be back together after being broken up at the end of Thursday’s victory at Florida.Article continues below ...The Avalanche top line has combined for 48 goals and 124 points through 29 games. Rantanen leads the league with 47 points and 35 assists while MacKinnon is second with 44 points.But for the third period against Florida, with the game tied 2-2, Colorado head coach Jared Bednar split up the top line, moving J.T. Compher to that top line and moving Rantanen to the second line. The Avalanche went on to win the game 5-2, with Compher scoring the tie-breaking goal.“Whenever coach puts you out with guys of that caliber it’s exciting,” Compher told NHL.com. “It was a great opportunity for me, and seeing how hard those guys work, they dog pucks all the time. I just tried to get out there to get on the forecheck trying to create turnovers, and we had a real good shift Womens Sean Couturier Jersey , pinned them in their zone and were able to get a goal.”That type of work ethic, Bednar felt, was not up to par, which prompted the switch to start the third period.“I felt like our top guys were struggling to kind of gain some traction,” Bednar told NHL.com. “They did have their chances, they scored on Mikko’s tip (in the first period) and they were doing some good things, but the regular traction that I expect out of that line wasn’t there. I thought maybe I flip them [and] sometimes you can get a spark, and if I didn’t like it I could just move it back real quick.”Bednar told BSNDenver.com on Friday that the trio would be back together to begin Saturday’s game against the Lightning, while goaltender Semyon Varlamov starts in goal.Tampa Bay, meanwhile, has a deep group of forwards that features five players who have already reached double digits in goal http://www.officialflyersproshop.com/authentic-adidas-shayne-gostisbehere-jersey , led by Brayden Point who is tied for the league lead with 21 goals. Linemate Nikita Kucherov is third in league scoring with 43 points.The Lightning also have seven players with at least 20 points and 10 players with at least five goals scored through 30 games.“It’s definitely a strength on our team,” said Lightning goaltender Louis Domingue, who is 9-2 in 11 starts since the loss of No. 1 goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy. “We saw it when some of our best players got injured, someone else jumped in the lineup and did a good job. It’s even guys that aren’t playing right now, when they come in, they are ready to go, and they do a good job.” DENVER (AP) — It was Jameson Taillon for Pittsburgh and Chad Bettis for Colorado on Tuesday night at Coors Field.An intersection with special significance.Taillon beat Bettis in a matchup of pitchers who battled testicular cancer last year, and the Pirates hit three homers in a 10-2 victory over the Rockies.“I’m not going to sit here and say we’re best friends and we talk on the phone all the time but we’ve both gone through something that is extremely similar and we both go through something similar starting pitching in the major leagues,” Taillon said. “There’s an understood bond there, something we’ll share for life.”Taillon (9-8) allowed 10 hits in his second complete game of the season. The 26-year-old right-hander struck out three and walked one, helping the Pirates stop a three-game slide.He became the first visiting pitcher to toss a nine-inning complete game in Denver since Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw shut out the Rockies on July 2 Travis Konecny Jersey , 2013.“I’ve watched 1,300, 1,400 ballgames here, you don’t see a lot of complete games,” said Pittsburgh manager Clint Hurdle, who managed the Rockies over eight seasons. “He finished strong.”Taillon threw 107 pitches, 70 for strikes. He needed just 15 to get the final three outs in his second career complete game.“You always hear closing out games is tough, weird things happen in the ninth so I told myself it’s a 0-0 game, let’s close out this inning,” Taillon said.Starling Marte hit a solo drive in the first and Jordy Mercer connected for a three-run shot against Bettis (5-2) with two out in the fourth. Josh Harrison capped Pittsburgh’s five-run fifth with a two-run homer off Jake McGee.Bettis allowed nine runs and eight hits over 4 2/3 innings in his first start after missing five weeks with a blister on his right middle finger.“The problem was those two walks in the fourth and the home run by Mercer Adam Cracknell Jersey Womens ,” Bettis said. “It really came down to those three at-bats where I didn’t really execute the pitches like I wanted to.”Taillon was diagnosed with cancer last year and missed six weeks after surgery last May.Bettis was diagnosed in November 2016. He was cleared to report to spring training before tests revealed he had cancer in his lymph nodes and he underwent treatment. He made his season debut on Aug. 14 and started nine games last year.Colorado made it 10-2 on Carlos Gonzalez’s two-run double with one out in the sixth.REMEMBERING DONTuesday marked the one-year anniversary of the death of former Rockies manager Don Baylor. Baylor was Colorado’s first manager and held that position for six seasons. He gave Hurdle his first job on a major league staff.“I’m forever grateful,” Hurdle said. “There’s times during the season or other times I’ll remember things he did or things he said that resonate, that have meaning. There’s still enough people within the game that I’ll see from time to time that we were connected. His spirit lives.”ARRIVALShortstop Adeiny Hechavarria joined the Pirates in time for Tuesday’s win. His plane landed at Denver International Airport at around 5 p.m. local time and made it to Coors Field 25 minutes before the first pitch.He was acquired Monday in a trade with Tampa Bay.CENTURY MARKRockies star Charlie Blackmon singled in the sixth inning for his 1,000th career hit. He received a short standing ovation from the crowd.TRAINER’S ROOMPirates: INF Sean Rodriguez was placed on the 10-day DL – retroactive to Monday – with a strain to the left abdomen.UP NEXTPittsburgh right-hander Chris Archer (3-5, 4.40 ERA) will make his second start since he was acquired in a trade with the Rays. He will face Rockies right-hander German Marquez (9-8, 4.70 ERA) in the series finale on Wednesday.