The Wild will look for their third win in a row today as the Blackhawks will look to avoid their third straight loss.
ST. PAUL - The Wild will look to extend their win streak to three games today with a game against the Chicago Blackhawks. The Blackhawks on the other hand have lost two straight games and will look for a road win before returning home.
The Wild will get Ryan Hartman back into the lineup tonight after he served his two game suspension for his slew foot on Detroit's Alex DeBrincat. He is expected to play on the fourth line with Connor Dewar and Brandon Duhaime.
"It's good to have him back," Wild head coach John Hynes said on getting Hartman. "I want the group to kind of be a part of it and not have anyone sitting for long periods of time, especially when we're trying to get up and running as a team."
It's also expected that Marc-Andre Fleury will get the start for the Wild which will be his first since Toronto in Sweden for the NHL Global Series.
The Blackhawks recently made a trade to acquire forward Anthony Beauvillier but after playing last night in Winnipeg against the Jets on a line with Connor Bedard and Philipp Kurashev, Beauvillier won't play today against the Wild due to a work visa.
Petr Mrazek will get the start for the Blackhawks against Fleury, who previously played for Chicago before the Wild traded for him. Mrazek is 5-7-0 with a 3.37 goals-against average and a .900 save percentage.
Lukas Reichel is expected to sit out tonight as well as the Wild's Vinni Lettieri. Cole Guttman and Reese Johnson will slide back into the lineup. Johnson of course was the player who hurt Jared Spurgeon in Chicago on October 5th in a preseason game.
Spurgeon has played eight games for the Wild this year and has two assists. Also worth noting that Zach Bogosian left practice early yesterday so if he is not available, Jon Merrill will slide into the lineup alongside Alex Goligoski.
Wild Projected Lineup
Kaprizov - Rossi - Zuccarello
Johansson - Eriksson Ek - Boldy
Foligno - Gaudreau - Maroon
Duhaime - Dewar - Hartman
Defense pairs:
Middleton - Spurgeon
Brodin - Faber
Goligoski - Bogosian
Starting goaltender: Marc-Andre Fleury
Blackhawks Projected Lineup
Ryan Donato - Connor Bedard - Philipp Kurashev
Jason Dickinson - Tyler Johnson - Tyler Raddysh
Nick Foligno - Cole Gutman - Joey Anderson
Borris Katchouk - Reese Johnson - MacKenzie Entwistle
Defense pairs:
Alex Vlasic - Seth Jones
Kevin Korchinski - Connor Murphy
Jared Tinordi - Louis Crevier
Starting goaltender: Petr Mrazek