Wild at Canadiens
The Minnesota Wild have a chance to tie and break a franchise record for consecutive wins, but they will have to run a mini-gauntlet of sorts to reach either milestone. Riding an eight-game winning streak, the red-hot Wild will kick off a three-game road trip at the Atlantic Division-leading Montreal Canadiens on Thursday night before facing the New York Rangers 24 hours later.
Minnesota coach Bruce Boudreau acknowledged his team is facing a "great challenge" with the back-to-back against two of the elite teams in the Eastern Conference. “It’s going to be a great test for us,” Boudreau said. "We are going in there to see if we are really playing well or if it’s sort of a masquerade right now.” The Canadiens own an NHL-best 32 points at home (15-2-2) after a dominating 5-1 victory over the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday. Montreal, which opens a seven-game road trip after Thursday's game, has lost its last three to the Wild and scored one goal in each defeat.
TV: 7:30 p.m. ET, FSN North, FSN Wisconsin (Minnesota), Sportsnet 360, RDS (Montreal)
ABOUT THE WILD (19-8-4): While Montreal's Carey Price is widely acknowledged as the NHL's top goaltender, Minnesota's Devan Dubnyk notched his league-leading fifth shutout against Colorado on Tuesday while also ranking first in goals-against average (1.55) and save percentage (.948). Dubnyk has won seven consecutive starts and is 9-0-2 in his last 11, with his last regulation defeat coming on Nov. 19. Captain Mikki Koivu scored a goal in Tuesday's victory to extend his point streak to four games.
ABOUT THE CANADIENS (21-7-4): Andrei Markov had a string of 116 consecutive games played snapped when he sat out Tuesday's win with an upper-body injury that is expected to sideline him against Minnesota. Fellow defenseman Jeff Petry has been an unlikely offensive catalyst and notched a three-point effort against Anaheim, including his fourth goal in the past five games to match his career-high total of seven. Price is a stellar 14-2-2 with a 1.83 goals-against average at the Bell Centre.
OVERTIME
1. Minnesota set a franchise mark with nine straight wins in March 2007.
2. Canadiens F Paul Byron has scored four times in the last seven games to hike his season total to 11, matching his career high.
3. Dubnyk is 3-1-1 with a 2.77 goals-against average versus Montreal.