Two top goalies clash as the Wild and Lightning face off. Anticipate a thrilling duel between these netminders.
The Minnesota Wild (40-19-12) is back in action tonight against the Tampa Bay Lightning (43-21-5) to start a three-game road trip.
Some positive news on the Wild injury front. With Kirill Kaprizov already returning, the Wild will get another forward back in Joel Eriksson Ek.
Here are tonight's starting goaltenders.
Filip Gustavsson will start for the Wild tonight. He stopped 24-of-25 shots faced to earn the win for the Wild in the first meeting between these two teams a few weeks ago in Minnesota.
Gustavsson, 27, is 26-11-6 on the season with a 2.48 goals-against average and a .913 save percentage in 44 games.
He is 3-1-0 with a 3.03 goals-against average and an .906 save percentage in four career games against Tampa Bay.
The 6-foot-2 netminder is sitting at 99 career wins in a Wild sweater and needs one more to become the fourth goalie in Wild franchise history to record 100 wins.
He is on a roll recently and is 12-2-1 in his last 15 games. His 12 wins since January 13th are third in the NHL behind Lukas Dostal and, who the Wild are likely to face tonight, Andrei Vasilevskiy.
Valilevskiy, 31, is once again one of the top goaltenders in the NHL. He is 33-12-3 on the season with a 2.29 goals-against average and a .915 save percentage. He stopped 17-of-21 shots faced for Tampa Bay in the first meeting between the two teams.
The 6-foot-4 goaltender is 6-7-2 with a 2.60 goals-against average, a .909 save percentage and one shutout in 15 career starts against Minnesota.
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