The Minnesota Wild (5-6-3) is on the road tonight to face the Carolina Hurricanes (8-4-0) for the first half of a back-to-back.

Only one change for the Wild tonight. Daemon Hunt will make his season debut on the third defense pair with Zeev Buium.

It will be interesting to see how the Wild use that pair considering it is on the road, so last line change, and Hunt is playing on his offside. David Jiricek will come out of the lineup. He has zero points in ten games and is a minus-3.

Hunt, 23, has not played in an NHL game since Oct. 15, 2024.

Minnesota will keep its fourth line intact again. That means Danila Yurov will sit for the third consecutive game as a healthy scratch. The trio of Ben Jones, Yakov Trenin and Tyler Pitlick have played three games together on a line. The Wild are 3-0-0 in those three games.

Funny enough Yurov played in one of the two games. He was the third line center in New York and scored his first NHL goal in that game. He has been scratched in the last two games and the Wild won both.

Yurov being scratched for three consecutive game will be something to keep an eye on. Mats Zuccarello is probable to return for Saturday's game. 

Starting Goaltenders

• Filip Gustavsson: 4-6-1; 0.900 Sv%; 3.11 GAA
• Frederik Andersen: 4-3-0; 0.894 Sv%; 2.96 GAA
  

Power Play

• Minnesota - 31.48% (3rd)
  
• Carolina - 11.43% (31st)

Penalty Kill

• Minnesota - 66.67% (31st)
  
• Carolina - 83.72% (8th)

Wild Projected Lines

Kirill Kaprizov - Marco Rossi - Marcus Johansson

Vladimir Tarasenko - Joel Eriksson Ek - Matt Boldy

Marcus Foligno - Ryan Hartman - Vinnie Hinostroza

Yakov Trenin - Ben Jones - Tyler Pitlick

Defense:

Jake Middleton - Jared Spurgeon

Jonas Brodin - Brock Faber

Zeev Buium - Daemon Hunt

Starting Goaltender: Filip Gustavsson

Scratched: Danila Yurov, David Jiricek.

Injured: Mats Zuccarello (lower-body), Nico Sturm (back), Zach Bogosian (lower).

Hurricanes Projected Lines

Andrei Svechnikov - Sebastian Aho - Taylor Hall

Nikolaj Ehlers - Logan Stankoven - Jackson Blake

Jordan Martinook - Jordan Staal - Seth Jarvis

Mark Jankowski - Jesperi Kotkaniemi - Bradly Nadeau

Defense:

Alexander Nikishin - Sean Walker

K'Andre Miller - Jalen Chatfield

Mike Reilly - Joel Nystrom

Starting Goaltender: Frederik Andersen

Scratched: Brandon Bussi, Charles Alexis Legault.

Injured: Jaccob Slavin (lower-body), Shayne Gostisbehere (upper-body, William Carrier (lower-body, Eric Robinson (upper-body).

How to Watch & Listen: Tonight's game will be on Fanduel Sports Network North. Anthony LaPanta will be on the play-by-play with Alex Stalock as the color analyst and Kevin Gorg the reporter. The radio broadcast will be on KFAN FM 100.3 with Joe O'Donnell behind the mic doing the play-by-play. Tom Reid as the color analyst and Kevin Falness as the Studio Host.

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