The Wild earned a great 4-1 victory over the Buffalo Sabres earlier this week. They will look to replicate that performance tonight against the Colorado Avalanche, one of the best teams in the NHL.
Alex Stalock was the one who got the W as the starting netminder for the Wild in Buffalo, while Devan Dubnyk was his backup. surprisingly enough, Dubnyk will be a healthy scratch tonight as Kaapo Kahkonen was called up earlier this week and will be the backup tonight.
It is still unclear whether Dubnyk is bothered by some injury issues, but he clearly hasn't done the job, at the very least in Bruce Boudreau's opinion. The ex-Vezina Trophy finalist has a terrible goals against average of 3.35 so far this season coupled with a lacklustre 0.893 as well as a losing 4-8-2 record.
The rest of the lineup should look exactly the same as the one that overcame the Sabres on Tuesday.
Here is how Minnesota should hit the ice against the Avs according to NHL.com correspondent Jessi Pierce:
Forwards:
Jason Zucker - Eric Staal - Mats Zuccarello
Zach Parise - Mikko Koivu - Kevin Fiala
Jordan Greenway - Joel Eriksson Ek - Luke Kunin
Ryan Donato - Victor Rask - Ryan Hartman
Defensemen:
Ryan Suter - Jared Spurgeon
Jonas Brodin - Matt Dumba
Carson Soucy - Brad Hunt
Goaltenders:
Alex Stalock
Kaapo Kahkonen
Nick Seeler and Devan Dubnyk are set to be healthy scratches. Marcus Foligno and Greg Pateryn are still out with injuries.