Wild at Avalanche preview

WILD (25-21-3) at AVALANCHE (22-19-8)
9:30 p.m. ET; ALT, FS-N, FS-WI, NHL.TV

Dubnyk has allowed three goals on 52 shots in his past two games.
The Wild are 3-1-0 in their past four games after going 1-3-0 in their previous four.
The Avalanche have lost two of their past three games and 11 of their past 14 (3-9-2).

Players to watch

Wild forward Eric Staal has six points (two goals, four assists) in his past five games.
Avalanche forward Mikko Rantanen has 11 points (six goals, five assists) in his past eight games.

They said it

"It's as tight as I've ever seen it. Nashville and Winnipeg are just a little above us all, but not by such a great amount that they can't be worried about it. Everybody else's sense of urgency to win games is an awful lot earlier than it would have been at a normal time, which is usually the (NHL Trade Deadline on Feb. 25)." -- Wild coach Bruce Boudreau
"We've been playing really well lately. Our record's not great but we've been outplaying a lot of top teams in the League the last couple weeks. So we're going on the right track and hopefully we can get a win going into the (NHL All-Star) break." -- Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon

Wild projected lineup

Jason Zucker -- Mikko Koivu -- Mikael Granlund
Jordan Greenway -- Eric Staal -- Charlie Coyle
Zach Parise -- Victor Rask -- Pontus Aberg
Marcus Foligno -- Joel Eriksson Ek -- Luke Kunin
Ryan Suter -- Jared Spurgeon
Brad Hunt -- Jonas Brodin
Nick Seeler - Greg Pateryn
Devan Dubnyk
Alex Stalock
Scratched:JT Brown, Matt Hendricks, Nate Prosser
Injured: Matt Dumba (right pectoral muscle), Eric Fehr (lower body)

Avalanche projected lineup

Gabriel Landeskog -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Mikko Rantanen
Colin Wilson - Carl Soderberg -- J.T. Compher
Sven Andrighetto - Alex Kerfoot -- Matt Calvert
Matt Nieto - Sheldon Dries - Gabriel Bourque
Samuel Girard -- Ian Cole
Nikita Zadorov -- Tyson Barrie
Ryan Graves -- Patrik Nemeth
Philipp Grubauer
Semyon Varlamov
Scratched: Mark Barberio, Dominic Toninato
Injured: Erik Johnson (concussion), Vladislav Kamenev (shoulder)

Status report

Hunt will make his Wild debut. He was acquired in a trade with the Vegas Golden Knights on Monday along with a sixth-round pick in the 2019 NHL Draft for a conditional fifth-round pick in 2019. … Minnesota assigned defenseman
Louie Belpedio
to Iowa of the American Hockey League on Monday. … The Avalanche recalled Graves from Colorado of the AHL and reassigned defenseman Anton Lindholm to the AHL on Tuesday.

Stat pack

The Wild are 0-for-12 on the power play in their past four games. … Barrie has 14 points (one goal, 13 assists) in his past 11 games.