PREVIEW: Red Wings set for quick trip to Minnesota on Tuesday

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Looking for payback and to extend their point streak to three straight games, the Detroit Red Wings will face off against the Minnesota Wild at Xcel Energy Center on Tuesday night.

Puck drop for the season series finale between Detroit (29-22-6; 64 points) and Minnesota (34-19-4; 72 points) is set for 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT, with broadcast coverage on FanDuel Sports Network Detroit and the Red Wings Radio Network (97.1 The Ticket in Detroit).

“They play a fast game,” Erik Gustafsson said about the Wild. “They have some speed up front, so we got to be ready from the puck drop. I think we were [on Saturday], but we were good for 40 minutes. Now, we got to play for 60.”

In both games of its back-to-back set this past weekend, including Saturday’s 4-3 overtime loss to Minnesota and Sunday’s 5-4 OT victory over the Anaheim Ducks, Detroit surrendered two-goal leads late in the third period.

According to Red Wings head coach Todd McLellan, there are several strategies when approaching how to defend late-game, 6-on-5 situations compared to a standard 5-on-4 penalty kill.

“They’re coming right out,” McLellan said about 6-on-5 scenarios. “You have no time, no space. You have to understand there's a difference there. Positionally, there's a few different things. They can usually outnumber you near the net, or at or around the net, and then from a structure perspective. From our end, there's a few things that we should do differently. We met about them again [on Monday]. We’ll try and be much better in those situations.”

McLellan also shared that neither Andrew Copp (undisclosed), who was placed on injured reserve on Monday morning, nor Michael Rasmussen (undisclosed), who is day-to-day after exiting the second period of Sunday’s game against the Ducks, will make the trip to Minnesota.

Needing some extra forward depth, Detroit recalled Sheldon Dries from the American Hockey League’s Grand Rapids Griffins on Monday morning. As of that afternoon, while McLellan hadn’t decided whether Dries would suit up on Tuesday, he was confident the Red Wings have several players who can fill the center roles.

“The unfortunate thing for one leads to opportunity for the other,” McLellan said. “It’s cliché. Coach is going to say that; that's just what we do, but that's the truth. We have what we have, and we have enough. I thought J.T. [Compher] played one of his better games in a long time, at least since his injury. Joe [Veleno] moved up and seemed to get better with more minutes, which is a good sign. We'll piecemeal other things together to get by.”

The Wild, who haven’t played since Saturday, remain in third place in the Western Conference’s Central Division. Winners in six of its past eight games, Minnesota also enters Tuesday with a 13-12-1 record on home ice this season.

“You put [Kirill] Kaprizov and a couple of their other injured players back into their lineup, that's a real solid, contending team,” McLellan said. “They check well and don't give you very much. I think they're very well-coached and organized. They can be physical and skilled, but they're really good in the offensive zone – of spreading things out and then attacking the net.”