Wild at Blues
The Minnesota Wild and St. Louis Blues are enjoying Novembers to remember, but the former would rather forget their last five meetings with the latter. The Wild look to snap a five-game winless skid versus their new Central Division rival when they meet in St. Louis on Monday. Niklas Backstrom (37 saves) sparkled in an emergency start as Minnesota posted a 3-2 shootout victory over Winnipeg on Saturday to improve to 9-1-1 in the month.
St. Louis continued its franchise-best start and improved to 9-2-1 in the month with a resounding 6-1 triumph over Dallas on Saturday. Six different players scored in the rout, although Alexander Steen was not among them. Steen, who has a team-leading 17 goals, notched an assist to dent the scoresheet for the first time in four games.
TV: 8 p.m. ET, NBC Sports, TSN2
ABOUT THE WILD (15-5-4): Backstrom was pressed into duty after Josh Harding (lower body) stepped on a puck and fell awkwardly during Saturday's pregame warmups. Harding's MRI exam on Sunday came back negative and the team plans to re-evaluate the netminder on Monday to see if he's fit to serve as Backstrom's backup. Harding is second among goaltenders in the league in wins (13), shutouts (two) and goals-against average (1.48).
ABOUT THE BLUES (16-3-3): Ryan Reaves received quite the blow while delivering one during his fight with Dallas defenseman Brenden Dillon. The Blues' enforcer suffered a broken right hand and will be sidelined for four weeks. "It's a tough time, especially when I finally kind of established myself on the team, somebody who can play every night," Reaves told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
OVERTIME
1. Minnesota has collected an NHL-best 22 points (9-1-4) in one-goal games.
2. St. Louis has scored seven power-play goals in its last six contests.
3. Wild C Mikael Granlund is nursing an upper-body injury and missed practice on Sunday. If Granlund can't suit up, the team is expected to recall C Mike Rupp, who is with Iowa of the American Hockey League on a conditioning stint.