The Minnesota Wild (43-29-7) is back in action tonight to face the Calgary Flames (37-27-14) for the first of a back-to-back in Canada.
If the Wild win tonight in any fashion, they will clinch a playoff spot for the 2025 playoffs. The Flames need to get a win to keep their playoff hopes alive.
The Wild will turn things back over to Filip Gustavsson tonight. He is 30-18-6 on the season with a 2.54 goals-against average and a .915 save percentage.
With their season on the line, the Flames will look to rookie goaltender Dustin Wolf. He is 26-16-8 on the year with a 2.64 goals-against average and a .910 save percentage.
Calgary is 5-2-3 in their last ten games. The Wild are 4-4-2 in their last ten games and have won two straight.
Defenseman Jake Middleton was on the ice for morning skate but isn't likely to play tonight as he was on the ice after all the Wild players exited. Wild head coach John Hynes said he could be a possibility but we will see.
Only change to the lines tonight is the starting goaltender.
Here are tonight's projected lines (subject to change).
Wild Projected Lines
Marcus Foligno - Joel Eriksson Ek - Matt Boldy
Kirill Kaprizov - Marco Rossi - Mats Zuccarello
Marcus Johansson - Freddy Gaudreau - Gustav Nyquist
Yakov Trenin - Ryan Hartman - Vinnie Hinostroza
Defense:
Jonas Brodin - Brock Faber
Declan Chisholm - Jared Spurgeon
Jon Merrill - Zach Bogosian
Starting Goaltender: Filip Gustavsson
Scratched: Cameron Crotty, Justin Brazeau
Injured: Jake Middleton (upper).
Flames Projected Lines
Jonathan Huberdeau - Nazem Kadri - Adam Klapka
Blake Coleman - Mikael Backlund - Matt Coronato
Joel Farabee - Morgan Frost - Yegor Sharangovich
Ryan Lomberg - Kevin Rooney - Martin Pospisil
Defense:
Joel Hanley - MacKenzie Weegar
Kevin Bahl - Rasmus Andersson
Jake Bean - Brayden Pachal
Starting Goaltender: Dustin Wolf
Scratched: Aydar Suniev, Daniil Miromanov, Dryden Hunt, Ilya Solovyov, Zayne Parekh.
Injured: Connor Zary (lower body), Anthony Mantha (lower), Justin Kirkland (lower).