Avalanche at Wild
The slumping Minnesota Wild appear locked into a second-place finish in the Central Division, so they have the luxury of worrying only about working out the kinks over their final four games beginning with Sunday's contest against the visiting Colorado Avalanche. Minnesota cannot catch first-place Chicago and sits seven points ahead of St. Louis and Nashville, and meets the Blues or Predators - whoever finishes third - in the first round of the playoffs.
The Wild lost at Nashville 3-0 on Saturday for their fifth setback in the last six games (1-3-2) and are 2-8-2 in their past 12 contests, as the Western Conference's highest scoring team recorded three or more goals only four times during that span. Colorado snapped a seven-game slide with a 2-1 shootout victory over St. Louis on Friday as 19-year-old center Tyson Jost - the 10th overall pick in the 2016 draft - made his NHL debut. “It was a dream come true, and I know that’s a cliche, but it’s true,” Jost told reporters after last playing for North Dakota in a 4-3 double-overtime loss to Boston University in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on March 24. “It’s something I’m going to remember for a long, long time. Having my family come down and be in the crowd, that’s pretty special.” Minnesota won the last meeting 2-0 on Dec. 20 behind 18 saves by Devan Dubnyk after the Avalanche earned a pair of one-goal victories in the first two encounters of the four-game season series.
TV: 6 p.m. ET, Altitude (Colorado), FSN North (Minnesota)
ABOUT THE AVALANCHE (21-53-3): Jost recorded two shots on goal in 13 minutes, 25 seconds of ice time Friday and was also denied during the shootout. "I wanted to put him in a situation," Colorado coach Jared Bednar told reporters about using Jost in the bonus format. "I know our fans wanted to see it, we wanted to see it. That's one of the things we can do because of where we're at in the standings." Nathan MacKinnon boasts club-leading totals of 51 points and 35 assists after recording a goal and five assists in his last five games while Calvin Pickard stopped 27 shots Friday to snap a five-game losing streak in which he allowed 19 goals.
ABOUT THE WILD (45-25-8): Mikael Granlund (team highs of 42 assists and 67 points) recorded only one assist in his last seven games after registering four goals and three assists in the previous eight contests. Eric Staal (team-high 27 goals, 60 points) had a six-game point streak snapped Saturday (three goals, three assists) after a productive March in which he recorded 10 goals and four assists. Zach Parise (17 goals, 37 points) returned Saturday after taking a high stick to the face Tuesday versus Washington and missing Thursday's 5-1 victory over Ottawa.
OVERTIME
1. Dubnyk (37-19-5, 2.23 goals-against average, .924 save percentage) is expected to start in goal Sunday after going 3-8-2 with a 2.94 GAA and .889 SP in March.
2. Colorado F Matt Duchene shares the team lead in goals with F Mikko Rantanen (17) but continues to struggle down the stretch by scoring once in his last 20 games with a minus-19 during that span, increasing his NHL-worst rating to minus-36.
3. Minnesota lost six of its last seven games when playing its third contest in four days.