Wild at Red Wings preview

WILD (28-27-6) at RED WINGS (23-29-9)
7:30 p.m. ET; FS-D, FS-WI, FS-N+, NHL.TV

The Wild ended a five-game losing streak with a 4-1 victory at the New York Rangers on Thursday. The win moved Minnesota back into the second wild card, one point ahead of the Colorado Avalanche and Chicago Blackhawks, who play Friday, and the Arizona Coyotes.
The Red Wings have lost three straight, including a 5-4 overtime loss to the Blackhawks on Wednesday. No. 1 goalie Jimmy Howard won't dress because of illness, so Jonathan Bernier will start. The Red Wings called up
Harri Sateri
from Grand Rapids of the American Hockey League as his backup.
Detroit is 15 points behind the Carolina Hurricanes for the second wild card in the Eastern Conference.

Players to watch

Wild defenseman Jared Spurgeon has five points (two goals, three assists) in his past five games.
Red Wings forward Anthony Mantha had an NHL career-high four assists against the Blackhawks and has eight points (two goals, six assists) in his past five games.

They said it

"We really needed this one. The feeling in the locker room, it's all different after you win a hockey game and hopefully we can build on this to something." -- Wild forward Mikael Granlund after Minnesota ended its five-game losing streak
"Our top line has been excellent but there have also been lots of times where (Gustav) Nyquist has played excellent with (Larkin). (Athanasiou) and Mantha have a history going back to the American Hockey League of being great together. We need to get more scoring out of more lines." -- Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill on replacing Anthony Mantha with Gustav Nyquist on the top line

Wild projected lineup

Jason Zucker -- Eric Staal -- Jordan Greenway
Zach Parise -- Mikael Granlund -- Pontus Aberg
Ryan Donato -- Joel Eriksson Ek -- Luke Kunin
Matt Hendricks -- Eric Fehr -- Marcus Foligno
Ryan Suter -- Jared Spurgeon
Jonas Brodin -- Greg Pateryn
Anthony Bitetto -- Brad Hunt
Alex Stalock
Devan Dubnyk
Scratched:Nick Seeler, JT Brown
Injured:Victor Rask (lower body), Matt Hendricks (upper body), Mathew Dumba (ruptured right pectoralis muscle), Mikko Koivu (ACL and meniscus tear)

Red Wings projected lineup

Tyler Bertuzzi -- Dylan Larkin -- Gustav Nyquist
Anthony Mantha -- Luke Glendening -- Andreas Athanasiou
Darren Helm -- Thomas Vanek -- Frans Nielsen
Justin Abdelkader -- Michael Rasmussen -- Jacob de la Rose
Niklas Kronwall -- Mike Green
Danny DeKeyser -- Jonathan Ericsson
Filip Hronek -- Trevor Daley
Jonathan Bernier
Harri Sateri
Scratched:Luke Witkowski
Injured:Evgeny Svechnikov (knee surgery), Jimmy Howard (illness)

Status report

The Wild did not have a morning skate. … The Red Wings sent forward Christoffer Ehn to Grand Rapids to make room for Sateri.

Stat pack

The Wild have allowed at least four goals in seven of their past 10 games. … Larkin has 17 points (eight goals, nine assists) in his past 14 games. He is two points shy of 200 in the NHL.