DALLAS – After more postponements amid rising COVID-19 cases around the NHL, there's only one game on the league's schedule for Monday and it's a clash between the Wild and Stars at American Airlines Center in Dallas.
This is also the Wild's last game before the holiday break, as the team's Thursday contest vs. Detroit was scrapped on Sunday after the Red Wings were shut down.
"Our key is focus," Wild coach Dean Evason said. "There's a lot of different distractions going on, and all we have to do is focus on tonight's game. We can't worry about what's going to happen after that. So, our guys have done a good job. We've talked about it a lot, the adversity and dealing with different situations as we all have in this world now.
"Our guys will do a good job. Puck's dropped, we're expecting them to play the right way."
Winger Jordan Greenway didn't make the trip to Dallas and is out with a lower-body injury. Captain Jared Spurgeon (lower-body injury) is also unavailable and was moved to injured reserved.
The Wild recalled forward Mason Shaw from Iowa in the American Hockey League, but Shaw won't play against the Stars.
Instead, winger Rem Pitlick will return to action after sitting out four games as a healthy scratch and center Victor Rask will remain in the lineup after it initially looked like he'd be the extra forward if Greenway played.
"We lost three in a row now, and we want to get back [to] winning games," defenseman Jonas Brodin said. "Last game before Christmas break, it's always nice to win to get a little confidence from that. I think it's a huge game today."
Projected lineup:
Marcus Foligno-Joel Eriksson Ek-Kevin Fiala
Kirill Kaprizov-Ryan Hartman-Mats Zuccarello
Brandon Duhaime-Frederick Gaudreau-Nick Bjugstad
Nico Sturm-Victor Rask-Rem Pitlick
Jonas Brodin-Matt Dumba
Jon Merrill-Alex Goligoski
Jordie Benn-Dmitry Kulikov
Cam Talbot
Key numbers:
2: Goals or less by the opposition in eight of the Wild's nine road victories.
3: Goals or more for the Wild in eight of those nine wins.
3: Assists by center Ryan Hartman during his last four games.
6-4-1: Record for the Wild over its last 11 road games.
8: Goals for winger Kirill Kaprizov over his past 14 contests.
About the Stars:
Dallas snapped a five-game losing streak on Saturday with a 4-3 overtime win over Chicago. Winger Joe Pavelski had four points that game, and he leads the Stars in scoring with 26 points. The Stars have won three of the last four games against the Wild at American Airlines Center. Lakeville's Jake Oettinger will start in net for Dallas. He's 6-2 this season with a .932 save percentage and 2.02 goals-against average.
