Islanders at Wild
The Minnesota Wild have been downright stingy this season, allowing an NHL-best 1.94 goals per contest as a team while yielding just 18 during their franchise-best 11-game winning streak. Devan Dubnyk will look to post his career-best 10th straight victory on Thursday as the Wild return home to face the New York Islanders, who pierced Minnesota for a season-high six goals in the first meeting.
Andrew Ladd notched an assist in the 6-3 triumph over the Wild at Barclays Center on Oct. 23 and recorded his first multi-goal performance with New York by tallying twice in a 4-3 victory over Washington on Tuesday. The Islanders have won a season high-tying three straight heading into the opener of a four-game road trip versus Minnesota, which has benefited from an 11-0-1 run to catapult to within one point of Chicago for the top mark in the Western Conference. Dubnyk turned aside 28 shots in the Wild's 3-2 overtime victory over Nashville on Tuesday, stretching his career-high point streak to 13 games (11-0-2). He also has fashioned himself as the early leader for the Vezina Trophy by posting league-leading marks in goals-against average (1.58), save percentage (.947) and shutouts (five).
TV: 8 p.m. ET, NHL.TV, MSG-Plus (New York), FSN Wisconsin, FSN North (Minnesota)
ABOUT THE ISLANDERS (14-14-6): Captain John Tavares collected two goals and an assist in the first meeting with the Wild but has been limited to just one point in his last five contests overall. Anders Lee has picked up the slack by netting his team-leading 13th goal on Tuesday, with 12 coming in his last 16 games. Thomas Greiss has yielded just 14 goals en route to posting a 5-1-0 mark in his last six outings and turned aside 26 shots in the October clash with Minnesota to improve to 3-2-1 against the club.
ABOUT THE WILD (22-8-4): Zach Parise, Eric Staal and the rest of the Wild are brandishing wide smiles of late, and who can blame them giving the team's winning ways. "It's a lot of fun," Parise said after increasing his point total to five (two goals,three assists) in his last six games. "You can tell the excitement after we win in the locker room, the smiles and the way guys are just happy for each other. It's been a fun string of games, and we feel like we can win all the games. We're playing with a lot of confidence." Staal carries an eight-game point streak (five goals, six assists) into Thursday's tilt versus New York, against which he had an assist in the first meeting and has accumulated 45 points (23 goals, 22 assists) in 47 career encounters.
OVERTIME
1. New York is looking to sweep the series with Minnesota for the second straight season and is 7-2-1 in its last 10 contests with the Wild.
2. Minnesota RW Nino Niederreiter has 12 points (four goals, eight assists) in his last 15 games and has singed his former team to the tune of seven points (four goals, three assists) in seven career encounters.
3. Islanders RW Cal Clutterbuck, who was selected in the third round of the 2006 draft by the Wild, scored his first goal in 20 games on Tuesday to reside at 99 for his career.