Wild at Lightning
The Minnesota Wild look to get their offense going again and solidify a lead in the Central Division when they begin a five-game, eight-day road trip against the surging Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday night. The Wild dropped two of three and scored only four times during that span, seeing their advantage in the division over Chicago reduced to one point with one game in hand.
Minnesota finished with a 33-20 edge in shots, but coach Bruce Boudreau told reporters after the 2-1 loss to St. Louis on Tuesday: “You could see there was no energy. I could tell from the first two minutes of the game that we didn’t have a lot of jump or pizzaz.” The Lightning present quite a challenge after recording at least a point in 11 of their last 13 games (8-2-3), but still trail the New York Islanders by four points for the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. Tampa Bay posted 38 shots on net Monday before falling 1-0 in overtime to the New York Rangers. “We upped our game,” Lightning defenseman Anton Stralman told reporters. “We played strong for 60 minutes. That’s what you need down the stretch. It’s not the one game that’s going to decide it. It’s the team that can play the most consistent through the last stretch that’s going to make it.”
TV: 7:30 p.m. ET, FSN North, FSN Wisconsin (Minnesota), FSN Sun (Tampa Bay)
ABOUT THE WILD (42-16-6): Leading scorer Mikael Granlund (21 goals, 39 assists) has cooled off a bit with one point over the last three contests after posting 28 over a 22-game span and several others have stalled offensively. Charlie Coyle has gone nine games without a point while fellow forwards Nino Niederreiter and Jason Zucker have not hit the scoresheet in four and three games, respectively. Defenseman Christian Folin (arm) is out about three weeks while fellow blue liner Matt Dumba missed Tuesday’s game with illness and is questionable.
ABOUT THE LIGHTNING (30-26-9): Andrei Vasilevskiy continues to shine since the trade of fellow goaltender Ben Bishop, allowing six goals in his last four starts with a 3-0-1 record and .956 save percentage. Nikita Kucherov, the reigning first star of the week in the NHL, boasts seven goals and seven assists over the last seven games to lead the team with 63 points - three away from matching his career high in 2015-16. Defenseman Victor Hedman had a rare off night Monday with two shots and a minus-1 rating, but owns 55 points and needs one to top his career high.
OVERTIME
1. The Lightning lead the league in power-play goals scored (50) and the Wild is 22-for-22 in penalty killing over the last 11 games.
2. Minnesota’s veteran C Eric Staal boasts 33 goals – nine on the power play - and 70 points in 68 career games against Tampa Bay.
3. Tampa Bay D Luke Witkowski was used as a forward on the fourth line the past two contests and had four hits combined in 17:45.