Stars at Wild preview

STARS (39-30-8) at WILD (42-24-10)
8 p.m. ET; NBCSN, NHL.TV

The Wild are 3-0-3 in their past six games and lead the St. Louis Blues by three points for third place in the Central. Minnesota is 11-4-3 in the past 18 games and has allowed two goals or fewer in eight of the past 11.
Dallas defeated the Philadelphia Flyers 3-2 in overtime on Tuesday for its first win since March 9. The Stars, who have lost seven straight road games (0-5-2), are 1-6-2 in their past nine games and have scored two goals or fewer in nine of the past 12.
Dallas is five points behind the Anaheim Ducks for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference.

Players to watch

Stars forward Tyler Seguin has 22 points (10 goals, 12 assists) in his past 17 games.
Wild forward Eric Staal has 21 points (14 goals, seven assists) in the past 18 games. He has scored 40 goals for the first time since he did it with the Carolina Hurricanes in 2008-09.

They said it

"Anytime during the year you have a home-and-home you look at it as a mini-playoff series, especially the time of year it is right now and both [of our] teams' situations, it should be a good one." -- Stars forward Tyler Seguin
"I believe that [the Stars] will play their best game ever. They will come out and if we're not absolutely ready to be at the best at our game -- we're going to have to play better than we have in the last five games to beat these guys." -- Wild coach Bruce Boudreau

Stars projected lineup

Jamie Benn -- Tyler Seguin -- Alexander Radulov
Mattias Janmark -- Radek Faksa -- Tyler Pitlick
Remi Elie -- Devin Shore -- Brett Ritchie
Antoine Roussel -- Jason Spezza -- Gemel Smith
Esa Lindell -- John Klingberg
Marc Methot -- Stephen Johns
Dan Hamhuis -- Greg Pateryn
Kari Lehtonen
Mike McKenna
Scratched:Dillon Heatherington, Julius Honka, Curtis McKenzie, Jason Dickinson
Injured: Ben Bishop (knee), Martin Hanzal (back)

Wild projected lineup

Jason Zucker -- Eric Staal -- Mikael Granlund
Zach Parise -- Mikko Koivu -- Nino Niederreiter
Jordan Greenway
-- Matt Cullen -- Charlie Coyle
Daniel Winnik -- Joel Eriksson Ek -- Marcus Foligno
Ryan Suter -- Mathew Dumba
Jonas Brodin -- Ryan Murphy
Nick Seeler -- Nate Prosser
Devan Dubnyk
Alex Stalock
Scratched:Gustav Olofsson, Tyler Ennis
Injured:Luke Kunin (knee), Jared Spurgeon (hamstring)

Status report

Bishop skated during practice Wednesday but his status has not changed. … Spurgeon could start skating next week.

Stat pack

Benn has nine points (five goals, four assists) in his past eight games. Radulov has six points (two goals, four assists) in his past six games. ... Parise has two goals and two assists during a four-game point streak. Zucker has five points (two goals, three assists) in his past six games. Minnesota is 25-6-8 at home.