Blackhawks at Wild preview

BLACKHAWKS (24-22-8) at WILD (29-19-6)
8 p.m. ET; NBCSCH, FS-N, NHL.TV

A five-game losing streak would be the longest this season for the Blackhawks who are 2-6-2 in their past 10 games and have scored two goals or fewer in nine of their past 12 games.
Goalie Jeff Glass will start for Chicago, which is eight points behind the Wild for the second wild card spot into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference. Minnesota is tied with the Calgary Flames and Anaheim Ducks with 64 points for the second wild card.
Devan Dubnyk will start for Minnesota, which has allowed two goals or fewer in seven of its past 11 games (7-2-2). The Wild are 8-0-3 in their past 11 games at home.

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Players to watch

Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane has 13 points (four goals, nine assists) in his past 13 games but one goal in his past eight games.
Wild forward Eric Staal, who leads the team with 24 goals and 49 points, has 12 points (five goals, seven assists) in his past nine games.

They said it

"It seems like we're playing OK, we just can't find a way to win these games. We've got to find a way to win these tight games. It's something we've been good at for so long, this year it just hasn't been the case. I'm sure it'll be [a tight game] tonight here again [against Minnesota], so we'll try keep it close and try to find a way to win it." -- Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane
"Every game's important. We've been talking about that since game two. … We just got to come out. We know we're playing a team we haven't beat in our building in a while, and they're pretty desperate, so we just got to play our best game." -- Wild coach Bruce Boudreau

Blackhawks projected lineup

Alex DeBrincat -- Jonathan Toews -- Anthony Duclair
Ryan Hartman -- Artem Anisimov -- Patrick Kane
Brandon Saad -- Nick Schmaltz -- Tommy Wingels
Lance Bouma -- David Kampf -- Vinnie Hinostroza
Duncan Keith -- Jordan Oesterle
Erik Gustafsson -- Brent Seabrook
Carl Dahlstrom -- Connor Murphy
Jeff Glass
Anton Forsberg
Scratched: Patrick Sharp, Tomas Jurco, Michal Kempny
Injured:Corey Crawford (upper body), Michal Rozsival (upper body), Jan Rutta (undisclosed)

Wild projected lineup

Jason Zucker -- Mikko Koivu -- Mikael Granlund
Tyler Ennis -- Eric Staal -- Nino Niederreiter
Zach Parise -- Matt Cullen -- Charlie Coyle
Daniel Winnik -- Joel Eriksson Ek -- Marcus Foligno
Ryan Suter -- Jared Spurgeon
Gustav Olofsson -- Mathew Dumba
Mike Reilly -- Nate Prosser
Devan Dubnyk
Alex Stalock
Scratched:Chris Stewart, Viktor Loov
Injured:Jonas Brodin (hand)

Status report

Dahlstrom has 23 points (three goals, 20 assists) in 47 games with Rockford of the American Hockey League. .. Rutta was placed on injured reserve. Crawford is not expected to play on the road trip, but could return soon. … Minnesota recalled Loov, acquired in a trade with the New Jersey Devils for Mario Lucia and Christoph Bertschy on Thursday, from the AHL on Friday. Stewart is a healthy scratch for the third straight game.

Stat pack

Toews has four points (one goal, three assists) in his past 12 games. … Granlund has 16 points (four goals, 12 assists) in his past 14 games.