Wild at Stars preview

The forward will become the 347th NHL player and the eighth Minnesota-born player to reach the milestone. He has 779 points (381 goals, 398 assists) with the New Jersey Devils and Wild, including 33 points (20 goals, 13 assists) in 53 games this season.

Minnesota, four points behind the Calgary Flames for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference, is 5-2-0 in its past seven games after going 1-5-1 in its previous seven.

The Stars, 3-1-1 in their past five games after going 1-3-0 in their previous four, can move ahead of the Colorado Avalanche into second place in the Central Division with a victory Friday.

Players to watch

Wild forward Mats Zuccarello has six points (three goals, three assists) in his past six games.

Stars forward Joe Pavelski has four points (three goals, one assist) in his past three games.

They said it

"We know we're going into a hornet's nest. It's a team that's been off for three days and will likely want to exact some revenge against us. These are the games where you dig deep and hopefully come up big." -- Wild coach Bruce Boudreau on playing the Stars after winning 7-0 in their previous meeting Jan. 18

"Any home game is a good game. At the start of the month, you have a quick meeting with your team and realize that seven of your next nine are on the road at that point. You have to take full advantage of your home games when you can. We just have to make sure we control what we can control, and home ice is very important in this month because there aren't many home games." -- Stars coach Rick Bowness

Wild projected lineup

Zach Parise -- Eric Staal -- Mats Zuccarello

Jason Zucker -- Luke Kunin -- Kevin Fiala

Marcus Foligno -- Joel Eriksson Ek -- Jordan Greenway

Ryan Donato -- Mikko Koivu -- Ryan Hartman

Ryan Suter -- Jared Spurgeon

Jonas Brodin -- Matt Dumba

Brad Hunt -- Greg Pateryn

Devan Dubnyk

Alex Stalock

Scratched: Victor Rask, Matt Bartkowski

Injured: Carson Soucy (illness)

Stars projected lineup

Jamie Benn -- Roope Hintz -- Tyler Seguin

Mattias Janmark -- Joe Pavelski -- Alexander Radulov

Andrew Cogliano -- Radek Faksa -- Blake Comeau

Denis Gurianov -- Jason Dickinson -- Corey Perry

Esa Lindell -- John Klingberg

Miro Heiskanen -- Roman Polak

Jamie Oleksiak -- Stephen Johns

Ben Bishop

Anton Khudobin

Scratched: Joel Kiviranta, Andrej Sekera, Taylor Fedun

Injured: Justin Dowling (lower body)

Status report

The Wild did not hold a morning skate. … Minnesota recalled Bartkowski, a defenseman, from Iowa of the American Hockey League on Thursday.

Stat pack

Parise has 34 points (17 goals, 17 assists) in 36 games against Dallas. … Seguin has 38 points (15 goals, 23 assists) in 32 games against Minnesota. … The Stars are 5-1-1 in their past seven home games against the Wild.