Flames at Wild preview

The goalie, who missed 15 games attending to a medical situation relating to his wife, Jenn, allowed five goals on 40 shots in his return, an 8-5 win at the Arizona Coyotes on Thursday. Dubnyk made three saves in relief of Alex Stalock in a 6-0 home loss to the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday. His last start at Xcel Energy Center was on Nov. 16, when he allowed four goals on 28 shots in a 4-3 overtime loss to the Carolina Hurricanes. 

The Wild are 1-3-0 in their past four games after going 7-1-1 in their previous nine games.

The Flames ended a three-game winless streak (0-2-1) with a 5-1 win at the Dallas Stars on Sunday; Calgary's skid followed a season-long seven-game winning streak. 

Players to watch

Flames forward Matthew Tkachuk has five points (two goals, three assists) in his past two games. 

Wild center Eric Staal has nine points (five goals, four assists) in his past six games. 

They said it

"The last five or six games, I think we've played well. It's a good feeling and he's a good player. Just get open, keep building chemistry, and we'll be fine." -- Flames center Elias Lindholm on linemate Matthew Tkachuk

"[The Flames had] won seven in a row. That's what usually happens, is losing streaks follow winning streaks. … But that being said, I think we're looking at a team that's dangerous. Last year they won the Pacific Division and when they all play their best, they're a very deep team and they're going to give anybody trouble." -- Wild coach Bruce Boudreau

Flames projected lineup

Johnny Gaudreau -- Sean Monahan -- Mikael Backlund

Matthew Tkachuk -- Elias Lindholm -- Andrew Mangiapane

Milan Lucic -- Derek Ryan -- Sam Bennett

Zac Rinaldo -- Mark Jankowski -- Tobias Rieder

Mark Giordano -- TJ Brodie

Noah Hanifin -- Travis Hamonic

Mark Stone -- Rasmus Andersson

Cam Talbot

David Rittich

Scratched: Dillon Dube, Oliver Kylington, Michael Frolik

Injured: None

Wild projected lineup

Zach Parise -- Eric Staal -- Mats Zuccarello 

Ryan Donato - Joel Eriksson Ek -- Kevin Fiala

Jordan Greenway -- Nico Sturm -- Luke Kunin

Marcus Foligno -- Victor Rask -- Ryan Hartman

Ryan Suter -- Jared Spurgeon

Jonas Brodin -- Carson Soucy

Brad Hunt -- Matt Dumba

Devan Dubnyk

Alex Stalock

Scratched: Nick Seeler

Injured: Greg Pateryn (lower body), Mikko Koivu (lower body), Jason Zucker (lower body)

Status report

Eriksson Ek returns after missing four games with a lower-body injury. …The Wild reassigned center Luke Johnson to Iowa of the American Hockey League on Saturday. 

Stat pack

Gaudreau has six points (four goals, two assists) in his past six games. …. The Wild are 9-1-3 in their past 13 home games. … Parise has 21 points (13 goals, eight assists) in 23 games against Calgary.