PREVIEW: Red Wings wrap up three-game road swing in Winnipeg on Saturday 

WINNIPEG -- Bringing a four-game point streak into the finale of their three-game road trip, the Detroit Red Wings will battle the Winnipeg Jets at Canada Life Centre on Saturday night.

“Rounding it out with two more points, you’d get five of six on this trip,” Mason Appleton said. “That’s a great trip. It’ll be a good game.”

Puck drop for what also marks the two-game regular-season series finale between Detroit (31-16-5; 67 points) and Winnipeg (20-23-7; 47 points) is set for 6 p.m. CT/ 7 p.m. ET, with broadcast coverage on FanDuel Sports Network Detroit and the Red Wings Radio Network (97.1 The Ticket in Detroit).

“We’ve dealt with circumstances all teams do -- whether it’s injury, travel, fatigue -- we’ve been able to push through to this point,” Red Wings head coach Todd McLellan said. “I expect our group to not only handle tonight, but the other 30 games we’ll have after this the same way they have during the season”

For Detroit, Thursday’s 4-3 overtime setback to the Minnesota Wild at Grand Casino Arena was the third straight game that the club needed more than 60 minutes to determine a winner. McLellan said the Red Wings played well considering all of the circumstances, but some disappointment still lingers.

“That’s a game that’s always hard to play, but every team has that,” McLellan said. “There’s a positive. You get a point, but we also led three different times in that game and found a way to leave a point behind. So, the glass is half empty there. I think we could’ve pushed harder and found a way to take two. So, we can go home at .500 or we can go home with a pretty good road trip. Time to take the test.”

In addition to using Friday’s scheduled off day to rest, members of the Red Wings organization went to Canada Life Centre at night to watch the Grand Rapids Griffins play the Manitoba Moose. The Griffins won, 2-1, pushing their road point streak to 17 games -- the longest in the American Hockey League’s 90-year history.

“The American League team isn’t often in the home city, and the parent club isn’t here at the same time, so I’m not sure if that was a planned scheduling attempt on somebody’s behalf, but we appreciate it,” McLellan said. “We don’t get to see [the Griffins] play enough, or at all really, during the season so we came to the game [on Friday]. I imagine they’ll come to the game tonight, so it’s a healthy thing for us to make sure they understand we’re watching them. Secondly, it gives us a chance to compare our future prospects against their peers.”

The Jets have lost three of their last four games but are on a six-game point streak at Canada Life Centre, most recently dropping a 2-1 shootout decision to the Florida Panthers on Thursday.

“I think Winnipeg is a team that’s kind of finding its groove a little bit here,” said Appleton, who spent nearly all his first seven NHL seasons (2018-25) with the Jets. “They know where they are in the standings. They’re a desperate, hungry team. We’re also hungry.”

Mark Scheifele leads the Jets and is tied for 10th in the NHL in points with 61 on 25 goals, and 36 assists, while Kyle Connor ranks second on the club with 58 points (23 goals, 35 assists) and Gabriel Vilardi is third with 44 points (19 goals, 25 assists). Netminder Connor Hellebuyck, who made 19 saves versus the Panthers, is 12-13-6 with a 2.65 goals-against average and .903 save percentage in 31 games.

In their last meeting versus the Jets, the Red Wings scored two first-period goals en route to a 2-1 victory at Little Caesars Arena on New Year’s Eve.

“We came away with a win [on New Year’s Eve], but the second half of that game the Jets were the better team,” McLellan said. “We ended up on our heels a little bit, so I’d like to see us change that. They obviously have a little bit more confidence right now than they did at that time, so our task didn’t get any easier between now and two weeks ago.”