Hurricanes at Wild
The Minnesota Wild have been tripped up by several missteps of late, but recent encounters with the Carolina Hurricanes have allowed the club to get back on its feet. The Wild vie for their fourth straight victory over the Hurricanes on Saturday afternoon when the teams meet at Xcel Energy Center.
Nino Niederreiter scored in his third consecutive contest on Thursday, but Minnesota couldn't overcome a porous start and dropped a 7-4 decision to New Jersey to fall to 1-3-1 in its last five outings. "I was hoping we all wake up and get this going. It went totally the other way," Niederreiter told the Minneapolis Star Tribune. The Wild are three points behind Colorado for the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference while the Hurricanes have lost three straight to sit six points behind Detroit for the final playoff berth in the East. Carolina jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead on Thursday before yielding the final four tallies versus Pittsburgh and also saw a two-goal lead go by the boards in a 3-2 overtime loss to Minnesota on Nov. 12.
TV: 2 p.m. ET, FSN Carolinas, FSN North (Minnesota)
ABOUT THE HURRICANES (31-27-13): Rookie forward Phillip Di Giuseppe didn't waste much time continuing his torrid stretch, scoring 42 seconds into the contest on Thursday for his sixth point (three goals, three assists) in his last six games. "(Saturday's) game is huge for us," Di Giuseppe told the team's website. "(Thursday was) our first (regulation) loss since the deadline. It wasn't the result we wanted, but we'll come back stronger in the next game." Cam Ward is expected to get the start on Saturday and has dropped four of his last six starts (2-3-1), but owns a 3-0-2 career mark versus Minnesota.
ABOUT THE WILD (32-28-11): Devan Dubnyk permitted three goals on eight shots against the Devils before receiving the early hook for the second time in four outings. The 29-year-old looks to get back on track versus Carolina, against which he made 37 saves in the last outing to improve to 4-1-0 in his career. Jason Zucker, who scored his second goal of the game in overtime against the Hurricanes in November, returned to the lineup on Thursday and recorded four hits after serving as a healthy scratch in each of the two previous contests.
OVERTIME
1. Carolina C Riley Nash has one goal and three assists in his last four games after being held off the scoresheet in each of the previous four outings.
2. Minnesota recalled Steve Michalek from Iowa of the American Hockey League with fellow G Darcy Kuemper considered day-to-day with an upper-body injury.
3. The Hurricanes have thwarted all but one of their last 20 short-handed situations.