Wild staying focused on Game 5 against Jets

ST. PAUL, Minn. --The Minnesota Wild refuse to look ahead entering Game 5 of the Western Conference First Round against the Winnipeg Jets at Bell MTS Place on Friday (7:30 p.m. ET; USA, SN, TVAS2, FS-N).
The Jets, who lead the best-of-7 series 3-1, have a chance to advance in the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since the franchise relocated from Atlanta in 2011. The Wild, who were eliminated in the first round by the St. Louis Blues in five games last season, have turned their attention to winning one game at a time.

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"If you look at beating Winnipeg three times in a row, you're looking at, 'Wow, that's a pretty daunting task,'" Minnesota coach Bruce Boudreau said Wednesday. "But you have to look at it as just playing one game, just win one game. And when you wake up the morning after you win the one game, you just think about winning one more game. And that's the way you think about it.
"With our situation, it's just win one game. It's not going to be easy, but win one game."
Minnesota will have to avoid elimination without forward Zach Parise, who is week to week after fracturing his sternum in the third period of Game 3. The Wild are also without defenseman Ryan Suter, who is out indefinitely with a broken right ankle.
"Well, it's bad luck," Boudreau said. "I know every team goes through these things. Unfortunately with our team, every player that's got hurt has been a top-six player or a top-four defenseman."
Forward Tyler Ennis made his 2018 postseason debut in Game 4. He was minus-1 with one shot on goal in 7:14.
The Wild recalled forwards Kurtis Gabriel, Justin Kloos, Kyle Rau, Sam Anas, Ivan Lodnia and Zack Mitchell from Iowa of the American Hockey League to bolster the roster in case of injury, giving Boudreau ample players to put in the lineup before Friday.

"We'll see," Boudreau said. "I don't know what the lineup is going to entail, it's a different building. I'm looking at what's the best fit for a game in Winnipeg and that's what we'll go with. If it's Tyler or [Joel Eriksson] Ek or Marcus [Foligno] or whoever, if it wasn't a good fit then we wouldn't play them. It's the same on defense. … We'll try to figure it out."
The Wild have been outscored 11-9 and outshot 143-96 in the series, but Boudreau's hopes remain high.
"It's not like a series where they've won 8-1, 8-1 and dominated the series," he said. "They may have dominated the first two games in shots. In scoring chances and everything else it's been pretty even."