The 7-10-4 Wild will look to extend their winning streak today against the 7-15-0 Chicago Blackhawks.
The Wild host the Chicago Blackhawks today for an afternoon game before embarking on a four game road trip. The Blackhawks on the other hand are coming off a 3-1 loss to the Winnipeg Jets last night on the road and will return home after today for four games at home.
Minnesota will look to extend their winning streak to three games for the first time this year. Meanwhile the Blackhawks are looking to end their two game losing streak and are 2-3-0 in their last five games. Here are some keys to the game.
Limit Bedard's chances
Most of the Blackhawks offense comes from their top line but mainly through Connor Bedard. The 2023 first overall pick has 11 goals and 19 points in 22 games this year and is on an eight game road point streak.
Yesterday the Blackhawks lost 3-1 to the Jets with their only goal coming from Bedard. It will be crucial for the Wild to limit Bedard's chances and if they do that, the Wild will put themselves in a good position to win their third straight game, which is something they haven't done all year.
Philipp Kurashev is second on the Blackhawks in points with 13 and plays the majority of his minutes on a line with Bedard. I would imagine Wild head coach John Hynes will likely matchup Joel Eriksson Ek's line against Bedard's but we will see.
Get pucks on net, pressure the defense
The Blackhawks just sent down two rookie defenders but still have a fairly young and unexperienced d-core which will be huge for the Wild to try and exploit. Alex Vlasic, 22, has played 41 career games in the NHL and gets top minutes alongside Seth Jones. Louis Crevier, 22, will also make his NHL debut tonight on defense.
Kevin Korchinski, 19, has played 22 games during his rookie year and is a minus 12. Korchinski plays with Connor Murphy who has played over 650 games in the NHL and Vlassic plays with Seth Jones who has played in 752 games. So they are surrounded with NHL vets but there is still room for the Wild to exploit the young defenders and try to force mistakes.
Petr Mrazek will start for the Blackhawks today. The 31-year-old goaltender has won five games this year and has a 3.37 goal-against average with a .900 save percentage in 13 games played.
If the Wild can limit Bedard's chances and that line in general, along with getting pucks on net and pressuring the defense, they will put themselves in the right spot to try and extend their winning streak to three.