COLORADO AVALANCHE VS NEW YORK ISLANDERS 06/01/2020 LIVE 7:00 PM ET

Two consecutive victories steadied the Colorado Avalanche and restored some of the margin of error lost during a December slump.

The New York Islanders will hope they can start to make up some ground Monday night, when they host the Avalanche in Uniondale, N.Y.

Both teams were off Sunday after playing on the road Saturday, when the Avalanche received a hat trick from Mikko Rantanen in a 5-2 win over the New Jersey Devils. The Islanders, meanwhile, were blanked by the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-0.

The back-to-back wins for the Avalanche -- who beat the reigning Stanley Cup champion St. Louis Blues 7-3 on Thursday -- are their first since Dec. 11-13. Colorado, which was 21-8-3 following the 3-1 win over the Devils on Dec. 13, closed December by losing six of its final eight games (2-5-1).

With the consecutive victories, the Avalanche regained sole possession of second place in the Central Division. Colorado will enter Monday tied for the second-most points in the Western Conference and with a two-point lead over the Central's third-place team, the Dallas Stars.

"Beating St. Louis at home 7-3 gives a lot of confidence (to) us," Rantanen said Saturday night following his second career hat trick and first since Feb. 7, 2017, against the Montreal Canadiens. "We were struggling a little bit before that. But I think we found our rhythm in the last two games. Really solid 120 minutes we played. So we just have to stay on the gas."

The Islanders had no trouble staying on the gas during a franchise-record 17-game point streak from Oct. 12 through Nov. 23. But New York is just 9-9-1 since then, a span in which it has won more than two straight games once and scored two goals or fewer nine times.

The Islanders opened January with back-to-back losses in which they scored one goal on just 63 shots and fell into third place in the Metropolitan Division.

But coach Barry Trotz remained confident Saturday, when the Islanders had their second-most shots in a shutout (33) since Trotz was named head coach prior to the 2018-19 season.

"If you bury a couple of those chances, you're leaving here maybe with a point or a victory," Trotz said following the game.

"It's like anything in life. You put a lot of effort into something and maybe you don't get rewarded the first time. The whole thing is to stay with it and you'll get rewarded. That's life. And it'll turn. I thought we played a pretty solid game."

The game Monday is the second of a three-game Eastern Conference road swing for the Avalanche, who visit the New York Rangers on Tuesday. The Islanders also open a back-to-back set Monday before traveling to face the Devils on Tuesday.

Rantanen is tied for second for the team-lead in goals with 15, trailing Nathan MacKinnon, who has 64 points (25 goals, 39 assists), which was the third-best figure in the NHL heading into Sunday's games.