Hurricanes at Wild
With their offense finally showing signs of life at Xcel Energy Center, the Minnesota Wild will play their final regular-season home game when they host the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday night. Minnesota has scored five goals in each of its last two home games and can wrap up second place in the Central Division by beating Carolina.
Eric Staal, who leads the Wild with 27 goals and is second on the team with 61 points, spent his first 11 1/2 seasons with the Hurricanes before he was shipped to the New York Rangers at last year's trade deadline. He will be honored by both his current and former team during pregame ceremonies to honor the veteran forward for playing in his 1,000th career game last month. Carolina made a dramatic late-season push, running off a 13-game point streak (9-0-4) before dropping its last two to all but snuff out its playoff hopes. Bryan Bickell could return to the lineup for the first time since he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in early November for Carolina, which needs to win out and have Ottawa drop its last four in regulation to have a shot at the final postseason slot.
TV: 8 p.m. ET, FSN Carolina, FSN North (Minnesota)
ABOUT THE HURRICANES (35-29-14): Bickell was recalled from Carolina's AHL affiliate in Charlotte, where he appeared in 10 games. He last played with the Hurricanes on Oct. 30 before experiencing dizziness and numbness in practice that led to the diagnosis of MS. "It's going to be emotional," Bickell said. "After getting diagnosed and that first month not knowing if I was ever going to play hockey again, it was tough to do every-day stuff and stuff like that. But to see the progress from where I was to where I am now is definitely special."
ABOUT THE WILD (46-25-8): Mired in a tailspin in which he lost seven of eight starts, Devan Dubnyk took a seat on the bench for two games before returning to the lineup and making 30 saves in Saturday's 5-2 win over Colorado. "Yeah, it's good to take a step back," Dubnyk said. "Any time there's a disappointing game, I always like to get back in there right away, just so you can forget about it. It was good." Saturday's win was the 38th of the season for Dubnyk, establishing a career high and eclipsing Niklas Backstrom's franchise mark.
OVERTIME
1. Bickell has tormented the Wild with eight goals in 20 regular-season games and seven tallies in 15 playoff matchups.
2. Minnesota's six-game winning streak in the series was snapped with a 3-1 setback at Carolina on March 16.
3. Hurricanes F Jeff Skinner has 10 goals in his last 10 games to match his career high of 33.