Wild aim to slow Ovechkin's scoring streak as Gustavsson minds the net. Lineups revealed for this pivotal matchup.
ST. PAUL, Minn - The Minnesota Wild (19-9-5) return to the ice tonight to face the Washington Capitals (18-10-4).
The Wild are 4-1-0 in their last five games and 7-2-1 in their last ten. The Caps are 2-1-2 in their last five and 7-1-2 in their last ten games.
Washington lost their last road game and is 8-5-2 on the road this season. Minnesota has won three straight at home and 11-3-4 at home this year.
Filip Gustavsson will start again for the Wild. He is 10-8-3 on the year with a 2.61 goals-against average and a .908 save percentage with two shutouts in 21 starts. He started the Wild's previous game against the Boston Bruins.
The Capitals beat the Wild 5-1 in October but prior to that meeting the Wild were 7-0-1 in their last eight games.
Alex Ovechkin has had some serious success against the Wild in his career. He leads the Caps with 21 goals, 19 assists and 40 points in 26 career games against Minnesota.
In 2017, he scored three power-play goals in the same game which is the mist ever by a Wild opponent in single game.
The Wild will have to attempt to slow down the best goal-scorer in the league tonight.
Wild Projected Lines
Kirill Kaprizov - Joel Eriksson Ek - Matt Boldy
Yakov Trenin - Danila Yurov - Vladimir Tarasenko
Marcus Foligno - Ryan Hartman - Nicolas Aube-Kubel
Ben Jones - Nico Sturm - Tyler Pitlick
Defense:
Quinn Hughes - Brock Faber
Daemon Hunt - Jared Spurgeon
Matt Kiersted - David Jiricek
Starting Goaltender: Filip Gustavsson
Scratched: None.
Injured: Jake Middleton (upper-body), Jonas Brodin (upper-body), Mats Zuccarello (upper-body), Marcus Johansson (lower-body), Vinnie Hinostroza (lower-body), Zach Bogosian (lower-body).
Capitals Projected Lines
Anthony Beauvillier - Dylan Strome - Alex Ovechkin
Aliaksei Protas - Justin Sourdif - Tom Wilson
Connor McMichael - Hendrix Lapierre - Ethen Frank
Sonny Milano - Nic Dowd - Brandon Duhaime
Defense:
Martin Fehervary - John Carlson
Jakob Chychrun - Matt Roy
Rasmus Sandin - Trevor van Riemsdyk
Starting Goaltender: Charlie Lindgren
Scratched: Bogdan Trineyev, Dylan McIlrath, Declan Chisholm.
Injured: Ryan Leonard (upper-body), Pierre-Luc Dubois (lower-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 Ryan Carter 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.
For action-packed issues, access to the entire magazine archive and a free issue, subscribe to The Hockey News at THN.com/free. Get the latest news and trending stories by subscribing to our newsletter here. And share your thoughts by commenting below the article on THN.com.
