Wild at Jets
Veteran center Eric Staal is slated to play in his 1,000th NHL game as his suddenly slumping Minnesota Wild look to sweep the season series when they visit the injury-plagued Winnipeg Jets on Sunday. Staal has scored seven goals in his last eight games, including one in Saturday’s 3-2 loss to the New York Rangers, but the Wild have fallen five points behind first-place Chicago in the Central Division after a 1-6-0 swoon.
“This is a tough stretch for us,” Staal, who has recorded 349 career goals, told reporters. “No one’s going to help us but us. We’ve got to come to play (Sunday) and get a good vibe going again.” Minnesota has outscored Winnipeg 17-11 in four victories this season – the latest being a 6-5 road triumph on Feb. 28. The Jets, who are 1-3-1 in their last five games, have five players with 20 goals and four with at least 58 points but entered the weekend 27th in goals against (3.17). “We have enough guys that can put the puck in the net, we need to get better at other aspects of our game to have a fighting chance at being the team we want to be,” captain Blake Wheeler told the Winnipeg Free Press.
TV: 5 p.m. ET, FSN North, FSN Wisconsin (Minnesota), TSN3 (Winnipeg)
ABOUT THE WILD (43-21-6): Leading scorer Mikael Granlund saw his four-game point streak come to an end Saturday but has recorded three goals and two assists over the last five games to push his career-high point total to 65. Minnesota needs more from its power play, which is 3-for-28 over the last nine contests, while Nino Niederreiter has gone 10 games without a goal and Charlie Coyle has netted just one in 15 matches. Defenseman Matt Dumba contributed a goal and an assist Saturday, giving him five points with a plus-2 rating in his last six games.
ABOUT THE JETS (31-33-7): Mark Scheifele hopes to continue adding to his team-high and career-best 70 points and needs one goal to match the career-high 29 he registered last season. Rookie Patrik Laine came into the weekend tied for fourth in the league with 33 goals and has posted 20 of them on home ice but just two in seven games this month. With defensemen Jacob Trouba (upper body), Tobias Enstrom (concussion) and Paul Postma (lower body) all expected to be out on Sunday, blue-liner Brian Strait was recalled from Manitoba of the American Hockey League.
OVERTIME
1. The Jets announced C Shawn Matthias would have shoulder surgery and is out for the rest of the season.
2. Minnesota C Martin Hanzal, a major acquisition at the trade deadline, notched an assist Saturday in his return to the lineup after missing three games due to illness.
3. Wheeler, who has accumulated 21 goals and 31 assists this season, needs two points to reach 500 for his career.