Wild Game Day number 72 Wild Record (40-24-7 87 pts) Road Record (16-18-1)
Opponent: Arizona Coyotes (23-36-11 57 pts) Home Record (14-19-4)
Site: Gila River Arena, Glendale, AZ
Time: 8:00PM CT
TV: Fox Sports North (FSN)
Last season results: 12/17 Coyotes 1 @ Wild 4 1/19 Coyotes 3 @ Wild 4 4/8 Wild 3 @ Coyotes 1
Last result: 2/8 Coyotes 4 @ Wild 3 (OT) 3/1 Wild 3 @ Coyotes 5
Three games against the NHL's newest franchise in their inaugural season and three wins over the Vegas Golden Knights, for the Minnesota Wild. That at the beginning of the season, may not have seemed that impressive. But 71 games into the season and Vegas having now lost just 21 times all year, three Wild wins is very impressive.
Coming off their win in Vegas last night the Wild travel to Arizona to face the suddenly inspired Coyotes in the desert. The Coyotes 11-4-2 since February 8th, ironically the date of first meeting of the season between the Wild and Yotes. Minnesota dropped the second match-up as well just over 2-weeks ago 5-3 in Arizona.
Tonight's game once again qualifies as a must win for the Wild, as they try to establish that they can win back to back contests, combined with the fact that their opponent is a non-contender. The playoffs have begun for the Wild and if they are going to qualify for the official post season they need to win the games that they are supposed to win, as well as performing better on the road.
Bruce Boudreau was met prior to last night's game, with the comments that Vegas would be an angry bunch following their 8-3 home loss to New Jersey. Boudreau's comment was "we should be mad too."
That same sentiment should be the Wild team motto tonight, and quite frankly, their rallying cry for the remainder of the season. They should be furious that they let three points evaporate away in the two previous meetings with Arizona, and there should be a burning desire to erase recent playoff failures that drive this Wild team every day.
Boudreau went with Alex Stalock between the pipes last night and his reasoning was that Stalock has not performed well against Arizona in the two previous games. That hunch played well last night, now Devan Dubnyk needs to return to the form that has made him one of the league's top netminders.
Last night Boudreau threw the lines into the blender once again and the formula yielded an inspired performance from the Wild. Expect that the lineup will remain the same possibly with one exception being Daniel Winnick who should find his way back into the lineup.
Ryan Murphy played well in his return logging over 19 minutes finishing a hit and a +1 rating. Murphy stepped in a played with the poise of a veteran and contributed all night. This is a real opportunity of Murphy to show that he can play at this level and make an impact.
Zack Mitchell also making his Wild return was far less noticeable, playing just under 8 minutes and finishing with a minus 1 rating along with a minor penalty.
It does not appear that Darcy Kuemper will be in the Coyote net as Antii Raanta is expected to make his return to the Arizona net tonight.
Projected Wild Lines: Zucker-Staal-Niederreiter Parise-Koivu-Granlund Ennis-Cullen-Coyle Foligno-Eriksson Ek-Winnick/Mitchell
Suter-Dumba Brodin-Murphy Seeler-Prosser
Dubnyk Stalock
It's always Hockey Day in the State of Hockey!
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