The Wild head North if the border to take on the Jets tonight in Winnipeg. Expect a spirited affair again tonight as the teams will rekindle last week's slugfest.
Winnipeg, thanks in large part to Connor Hellebuyck and his stellar performance in the Jets net, skated off with the 2-0 victory. The second goal was into the empty net so figuratively a one goal game.
The Wild controlled much of the play in that contest but were beaten by Hellebuyck. In that one the Wild were a bit guilty of getting too cute and away from their game of establishing the forecheck and driving the net for rebounds.
You can count on it tonight that will not be the case. Also Marcus Foligno returns to the Wild lineup following his two game ban for kneeling Adam Lowry in the head during one ofbtheir two scraps.
Expect Foligno to be better composed, but do not expect his to shy away from paying Lowry back at some point.
The defense pairings will be adjusted as Alex Goligoski will team up with Jon Merrill, while Jordie Benn and Dmitry Kulikov will skate together. Jared Spurgeon and Jonas Brodin form quite the dynamic duo as the number one pair again tonight. Benn and Goligoski had some major issues on Monday night with both coughing up pucks that led to Wings breakaways.
The border War is always a heated battle and tonight will just be another in the long line of tough, fight for every inch of ice contest once again.
It's always Hockey Day in The State of Hockey!