The Minnesota Wild start a home-and-home series with the Philadelphia Flyers, starting with a game in Philly to wrap up the Wild’s four-game road trip. The Flyers will visit St. Paul on Tuesday.
The Wild (6-7-2) have a chance to win back-to-back games for just the second time this season after their win in Montreal. However, they haven’t had the greatest success against the Flyers (8-6-2) in recent memory. The Wild are just 3-9-0 in Philly and have lost the last five contests against them. The Wild haven’t beaten this Eastern Conference foe since Nov. 20, 2014.
Jason Zucker has single-handedly provided the Wild’s offense the past two games, scoring five straight goals including a pure hat trick in Thursday’s third period in Montreal. It’s the first time in team history a player has scored five consecutive goals, according to Elias Sports Bureau. One of his tallies came shorthanded, adding to the team total of four shorthanded goals this season, tied for the league lead.
With Zucker’s offensive outburst, he’s jumped into the team lead in goals (eight) and points (13).
Goaltender Devan Dubnyk is 2-5-1 with a 2.64 GAA and .918 save percentage in his career against the Flyers. He earned a shutout the other night, and the Wild no doubt would like that type of consistent effort from him a little more often. Nino Niederreiter has four points in his last six games against the Flyers. Marcus Foligno has 52 hits in 14 games this season, ranking sixth in the NHL.
For the Flyers, the Wild should watch out for Jakub Voracek with 21 points, Sean Couturier (10-9–19) and Claude Giroux with 20 points.
The Wild still remain in the division basement with just 14 points. They haven’t gone on any type of run yet this season, trading wins and losses with a three-game losing streak in there, too. Zucker can’t keep doing everything on the scoresheet, so the Wild will need to see some of their other core players get going and contribute. Mikael Granlund, who missed time with a groin injury, has just one goal and four assists in 10 games. Chris Stewart has cooled off from his six-goal start, though that was more than anyone expected for this veteran tough guy.
They need points, and a 2-2 road trip with a win in Philadelphia to get the overall record back to .500 would be a big momentum boost before the Wild head back home.
Injury list:
- Zach Parise (microdiscectomy surgery), 15 games
- Charlie Coyle, IR, (right fibula fracture), 12 games
Total man games lost: 46
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