Red Wings at Wild
The Minnesota Wild look to rebound from a demoralizing road trip and gain a stronger hold of their playoff position when they host the Detroit Red Wings on Sunday night. The Wild, who are tied with Dallas for third place in the Central Division, had won five straight games before suffering losses at Arizona and Colorado while allowing 12 goals overall - 11 in the last four periods.
“It was embarrassing,” Minnesota defenseman Matt Dumba told reporters after the 7-1 loss at Colorado on Friday. “There’s (17) more games and we’ve got to get up for them. This was a brutal game. It’s a busy month. We can’t dwell on this. We know we played (poorly).” The Wild have lost two straight in regulation for the first time since Dec. 22 and 23 as they prepare to take on the Red Wings, who are hanging on the fringe of playoff contention in the Eastern Conference while sitting seven points behind the second wild card. Detroit did not help itself with two straight one-goal losses, including Friday’s 4-3 setback at Winnipeg, and is 1-2-0 on a five-game road trip. “We can say that we are close and that we battled hard in the third (period) but there’s no reason for us to be in that situation,” Red Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg told reporters. “We’re not consistent enough.”
TV: 7 p.m. ET, NBC Sports Network
ABOUT THE RED WINGS (26-28-10): Anthony Mantha snapped a five-game point drought with his team-leading 21st goal Friday, but Detroit will need more from its top scorers to make a run. Leading point producer Dylan Larkin (47) has managed only four assists and no goals in the last nine games while Zetterberg owns two goals and four points in his last 10 contests. The Red Wings got two goals from their defense corps Friday as veteran Niklas Kronwall converted on the power play and Trevor Daley scored for the third time in four games.
ABOUT THE WILD (36-22-7): Captain Mikko Koivu has scored in three consecutive games while adding an assist in that stretch as the veteran center (12 goals, 35 points) attempts to finish a disappointing offensive season strong. Veteran center Eric Staal was kept off the scoresheet in the last two contests, but had 12 of his team-leading 64 points in the previous five outings, and forward Mikael Granlund owns two four-point games in the last five. Goaltender Devan Dubnyk (27-12-5) had won four consecutive outings before allowing five goals on 17 shots Friday.
OVERTIME
1. The Red Wings have won five of the last seven meetings, including a 4-2 win Oct. 5 in the season opener for both teams.
2. Detroit D Jonathan Ericsson (11 points, plus-5 rating) missed Friday’s game because of illness and is questionable for Sunday.
3. Minnesota F Jason Zucker boasts four goals and seven assists in the last eight games despite being blanked in the last two.