Bruins at Wild
Two of the league's hottest goaltenders will square off when Tuukka Rask and the Boston Bruins visit Devan Dubnyk and the Minnesota Wild on Thursday night. The Bruins have won three in a row entering the finale of a three-game road trip and will be looking to avenge a lopsided 5-0 home loss to Minnesota on Oct. 25.
Boston has surrendered a combined three goals in its three-game run and is coming off a 2-0 win at Colorado. Tuukka Rask, named the NHL's First Star of the Week on Monday, earned his third shutout of the season against the Avalanche. Counterpart Devan Dubnyk has been outstanding for the Wild, who have yielded an NHL-low 29 goals for the season. Minnesota has not provided much offensive support this month with nine goals in six games.
TV: 8 p.m. ET, NESN (Boston), FSN North (Minnesota)
ABOUT THE BRUINS (10-6-0): Rask set career worst in losses (22) and save percentage (.915) last season, but he has bounced back with a vengeance, winning the top weekly honor by allowing three goals and winning all four starts to tie for the league lead with 10 victories. "He's been great so far and keeping us in the game every single game," Bruins center David Krejci said. "Sometimes, we only need one or two goals to win the game." Rask is 2-2-1 with a 2.14 goals-against average versus the Wild.
ABOUT THE WILD (8-6-1): Minnesota has permitted only 10 goals in its last nine games, eight of which have been started by Dubnyk. To illustrate the recent scoring struggles, Dubnyk is 1-4-0 in November despite allowing nine goals, which came on the heels of three consecutive shutouts to close out October, including one against Boston. Two of those defeats have come by 1-0 scores for Dubynk, who had lost his first five career starts against the Bruins prior to last month's 27-save shutout.
OVERTIME
1. Minnesota is 1-for-13 on the power play over the last five games while Boston is 1-for-6 in its last four.
2. The Bruins need five goals to join Montreal as the only team in NHL history to score 20,000.
3. Wild leading scorer Eric Staal has 15 goals and 35 points in 44 games versus Boston.