David Aebischer knows what he must do tonight. The Avalanche goalie knows he must put a stop to the team's precipitous slide. He knows he must do what his predecessor, Patrick Roy, always seemed to do: rise to the occasion in the team's neediest hour.

The Avalanche needs a victory tonight against the Los Angeles Kings at the Pepsi Center not just to stay in first place in the Northwest Division ahead of the Vancouver Canucks, but to stop from possibly tumbling to fifth place in the Western Conference.

A regulation loss to the Kings and a Canucks win, tie or overtime loss at home to Phoenix tonight, and the Avs would drop to fifth place in the West. If that happened and the season ended tonight, the Avs would open the playoffs on the road against the Dallas Stars in a best-of-seven series.

Aebischer, 0-4 in his past four starts with an .898 save percentage, is eager to be the stopper the Avs need.

"We need to win a couple games in a row now, no question about that," Aebischer said after Saturday's 2-0 loss to Detroit, in which backup Tommy Salo played. "We've been working hard the last few games, but we have to keep working hard and good things will happen."

Aebischer has not been the main reason for the Avs' 0-5-1 skid. But he knows he hasn't been good enough.

"I haven't been bad, but not great, either," Aebischer said. "I know I can pick it up a notch. That's what I'm going to do the next couple days."

No matter who starts in goal, if the Avs don't start shoring up other areas of their game, they won't get out of the first round for a second straight season.

On the power play, the Avs have capitalized on four of the past 60 chances at home. The penalty-killing unit desperately misses the injured Andrei Nikolishin, whose return is uncertain because of back problems. The offense hasn't produced more than two goals in the past six games. Coach Tony Granato has tried just about every line combination to get things going.

"The bottom line is, we're at a stretch of the year where we have to step forward," Granato said. "The standings change every day, and it's important for us to regain our focus, regain our intensity and regain the winning form that we had for the majority of the season."

If they don't, the Avs can start packing and checking the Dallas weather reports.

"This is right up there (for low points) with this team," Aebischer said. "It feels like last year right at the beginning. We've got to find a way to get this thing turned around again."