Wild at Ducks preview

WILD (44-25-10) at DUCKS (41-25-13)
10 p.m. ET; SN360, SN1, PRIME, FS-N, NHL.TV

The Ducks are one point behind the Los Angeles Kings in the division with three games remaining. They occupy the first wild-card spot from the Western Conference, two points ahead of the Colorado Avalanche and three ahead of the St. Louis Blues.
If the Ducks win and the Blues lose to the Chicago Blackhawks in any fashion Wednesday, Anaheim will clinch a postseason berth for the sixth straight season.
The Wild clinched third place in the Central Division on Monday and qualified for the playoffs for the sixth consecutive season.

Players to watch

Minnesota forward Jason Zucker has six points (four goals, two assists) in his past five games against the Ducks.
Ducks forward Ondrej Kase has three points (one goal, two assists) in his past two games, and a goal and an assist in two games against the Wild this season.

They said it

"We want to have strong momentum going into the playoffs. ... We want to keep our good habits." -- Minnesota defenseman Nick Seeler
"We dealt with a lot of injuries at the start of the season and throughout the year. The one thing we do have is experience with our young players. We're going to look to some of them to step up and fill some of those minutes." -- Ducks coach Randy Carlyle, on the absence of Cam Fowler

Wild projected lineup

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

Ducks projected lineup

Rickard Rakell -- Ryan Getzlaf -- Corey Perry
Andrew Cogliano -- Ryan Kesler -- Jakob Silfverberg
Nick Ritchie -- Adam Henrique -- Ondrej Kase
Jason Chimera -- Derek Grant -- JT Brown
Josh Manson -- Hampus Lindholm
Francois Beauchemin -- Brandon Montour
Marcus Pettersson -- Andy Welinski
Ryan Miller
Reto Berra
Scratched: Antoine Vermette, Korbinian Holzer, Chris Kelly, Troy Terry
Injured: Patrick Eaves (illness), Kevin Bieksa (hand), Cam Fowler (shoulder), John Gibson (upper body)

Status report

Fowler sustained a shoulder injury in a 4-3 overtime win against the Avalanche on Sunday and will miss 2-6 weeks. Gibson left the game with an upper-body injury and won't play. ... Minnesota coach Bruce Boudreau said he plans to have Greenway in the lineup in the final three games. … Welinski likely will be in the lineup for Fowler and play his fifth NHL game.

Stat pack

Dubnyk has 20 shutouts in 225 starts since he was acquired by the Wild on Jan. 14, 2015, the most among NHL goaltenders in that span. … Kesler has scored seven of his eight goals in the third period this season.