Wild begin back-to-back road trip with visit to Washington

Game 75: Minnesota (34-31-9) vs Washington (43-23-8)

How to Watch: Fox Sports North, NHL Network

How to Listen: KFAN 100.3

Puck Drop: 6 p.m. CT

If you thought time was at a premium before Tuesday night’s game against Colorado, in which the Wild once again was unable to put together a full 60-minute effort and get two points in a time they need it the most. Well, here we are and things are not getting easier for the Wild as they hit the road for a back-to-back first against Metro leading Washington.

Season Recap

This will be the second and final meeting between the two teams, but it has been since November since these teams have met. In this contest back in May at Xcel, the Caps would come out victorious 5-2. In that game, it was the return of Tom Wilson off his suspension in which he scored and would later fight Marcus Foligno. As for the game as a whole, the Wild would find themselves trailing 3-0 just 23 minutes into the game before Mikko Koivu would score just past the midway point of the second. Washington would add two more in the third before Matt Dumba would pot a goal late but wouldn’t be enough. Between the pipes was the obvious Devan Dubnyk, but Pheonix Copley would shutdown the Wild for his third straight win at the time.

Team Leaders

The obvious leader for the Caps is Alex Ovechkin who leads Washington in both points and goals with 82 and 48 respectfully. However, its the rest of the team the Wild also need to keep an eye on or they could burn them as well. Although Ovi leads the team in points, the Caps also have three players with 60+ points on the season. Nicklas Backstrom, John Carlson and Evgeny Kuznetsov. And don’t forget about T.J. Oshie who only has 47 points, but can break out at any moment. As for the Wild, its a different story. They don’t have a player above the 60 point mark, however have a handful in the high 40’s but Zach Parise leads Minnesota with 58 points and will rely on him heavily these last handful of games.

Past Ten Games

The Capitals have been dominate in their past ten games that has allowed them to catapult them into first place in the Metro going 7-2-1. However, the last time out, Washington put up 58 shots on Tampa yet fell 5-4 in overtime. Probably one of the better games this season, and could be an Eastern Conference Finals preview saw the Caps come up short. Minnesota beat Tampa, in Tampa, shutting them out, but hasn’t done anything since that game to say they are the better team going into the game tonight. Although going 3-4-3 in their last ten games, the Wild still sit just a point away from the final Wild Card spot in the Western Conference. And with St. Louis being nine points ahead of Minnesota, the Wild will most certainly make the playoffs as a Wild Card team since Dallas sits just five points ahead of them. With puck drop set for just after 6 p.m. CT, a game thread will be posted about an hour before things get started from the U.S. Capital.