It’s the second-to-last game for the Minnesota Wild as it plays the St. Louis Blues tonight at 7:00 p.m. on FanDuel Sports Network and KFAN FM 100.3. Recent Iowa recalls, Nicolas Aube-Kubel, Hunter Haight, Ben Jones and Matt Kiersted will all slot into the lineup as Minnesota will be resting starters in tonight’s contest against St. Louis.
Minnesota and St. Louis enter tonight on different ends of the spectrum. The Blues have officially been eliminated from Stanley Cup Playoff contention while Minnesota remains the three seed in the Western Conference and will face the Dallas Stars in the first round beginning this weekend.
Tonight marks the third time these two teams will face off this season, with each team earning a win in the previous two meetings. The Wild shut out the Blues in the opening game of the season on October 9, 5-0, while St. Louis earned a 3-1 win in St. Paul on March 1. Per Stats Perform, the Wild has won its last three games in St. Louis, matching its record for consecutive road wins against the Blues, done once before (Feb. 6, 2018-Nov. 11, 2018).
Filip Gustavsson, who stopped all 26 shots faced in the first meeting between these two teams, will get the start tonight. In nine career games against St. Louis, Gustavsson owns a 5-3-0 record with a 2.29 GAA, a .918 SV% and one shutout.
Joel Hofer is expected to start for St. Louis. He is 22-13-5 on the season in 44 games (41 starts), with a 2.59 GAA, a .910 SV% and six shutouts. He has only faced Minnesota twice in his career and is 2-0-0 with a 1.00 GAA and a .951 SV%.
Players to Watch:
Nick Foligno: The veteran center enters tonight’s game against St. Louis with five points (2-3=5) in his last five games against the Blues.
