Wild Warmup: Minnesota at Arizona

The essentials

GLENDALE, Ariz. -- So it all comes down to this for the Wild.
At least for now.
In the latest in a long line of "biggest games of the season," the Wild will face the Arizona Coyotes on Sunday afternoon at Gila River Arena. While the last couple weeks has featured plenty of games against playoff-bound opponents, it seems likely that the game between the Wild and Coyotes is an elimination game, at least of sorts.
Nobody is mathematically eliminated with a loss on Sunday, no matter who wins. But it sure seems like whomever comes away with a loss in the game will have a giant uphill climb to reach the playoffs.
Put more succinctly?
"I think whoever loses is probably for sure out," Wild coach Bruce Boudreau stated flatly on Friday night following Minnesota's 3-2 win in Las Vegas.

The Colorado Avalanche is in the driver's seat for the second and final wild card position in the Western Conference, especially after a 3-2 shootout win over the Coyotes in Denver on Friday night.
The Avs are three points clear of Arizona and four better than Minnesota. All four teams have four games to play. Colorado is red hot, having posted a 6-0-1 record over its past seven games to put itself in position.
But the Avalanche don't have an easy schedule remaining, with four games remaining over the regular season's final six nights, including a road-home back-to-back against St. Louis and Edmonton on Monday and Tuesday before contests against playoff-bound Winnipeg and San Jose on Thursday and Saturday.
Minnesota has said it feels it needs to win each of its final four games to put real pressure on Colorado, which would then need to capture at least five of eight points next week to hold the Wild off.
The Wild currently has a regulation/overtime wins advantage over both teams it is competing with for the playoffs, and a 4-0 finish to the regular campaign would, in all likelihood, keep that important first tiebreaker in its back pocket.
"We know where we're at," said Wild forward Eric Staal. "We were crossing our fingers hoping Arizona [would] beat Colorado [on Friday], kind of keep it a little tighter.But our job is to try and get the win Sunday. We're going to have to play as desperate as we were [in Vegas] and hopefully the result goes our way."
The Coyotes have stormed back into the playoff picture on the back of a familiar face for Wild fans. Goaltender Darcy Kuemper has been one of the major reasons Arizona has rallied from the bottom of the Western Conference to its current position,
Since Jan. 6, Kuemper has a 20-8-5 record to go with a .929 save percentage and a 2.14 goals-against average, helping Arizona weather a number of injuries to key players this season.
Arizona's momentum has stalled a bit in recent weeks however, as the Coyotes have won just one of their past seven games. Arizona has managed to get three of those losses to at least overtime, however, a trio of big points in the standings.
Clayton Keller leads the Arizona offensive attack, having chipped in 32 assists to go with 46 points. Defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson is the only other Coyote with more than 40 points, having posted 14 goals and 29 assists. Alex Galchenyuk leads the team with 17 goals.

Duby, Duby, doo

Devan Dubnyk leads the NHL in games played and road wins (19) this season.
He made 35 saves in a 3-2 win at VGK (3/29) to register his 30th win of the season - the fifth consecutive season Dubnyk has reached the 30-win mark. He is one of two goalies to win 30 games in each of the last five seasons (Holtby).
The win at Vegas also established a franchise record for road wins in a career (78). Dubnyk recorded his 78th road win in 143 games with the Wild (Niklas Backstrom tallied 77 road wins in 187 games).

Powerful power play

Minnesota tallied two power-play goals in Friday's 3-2 win at Vegas and has recorded a PPG in six of its last eight games (8-for-25, 32%) - leading the NHL in PPG and ranking third in PP% since March 14.

Series notes

2018-19: The Wild is 1-1-0 in two season meetings against the Coyotes after earning a 2-1 victory on Oct. 16 and falling 4-3 on Nov. 27, both games were played at Xcel Energy Center…D Jared Spurgeon leads Minnesota with four assists…D Ryan Suter (0- 2=2) and LW Jason Zucker (1-1=2) own two points each…G Devan Dubnyk is 1-1-0 with a 2.54 GAA and a .891 SV% in two starts… RW Josh Archibald leads Arizona with three points (2-1=3) in two games…LW Lawson Crouse (1-1=2) and D Jordan Oesterle (0-2=2) have two points apiece…G Darcy Kuemper made 26 saves in the first meeting…G Antti Raanta started the second game, allowing three goals on 20 shots through two periods and G Adin Hill earned the win stopping all five shots faced in relief.
WILD LEADERS: C Mikko Koivu leads Minnesota with 33 points (8- 25=33) in 41 games against Arizona…C Eric Staal owns 20 points (14-6=20) in 22 contests…LW Zach Parise has 19 points (11-8=19) in 23 matches…D Ryan Suter owns 17 points (4-13=17) in 45 games.
WILD GOALIES: Dubnyk is 7-7-4 with a 2.80 GAA and .907 SV% in 19 games (18 starts) vs. the Coyotes…G Alex Stalock is 1-1-0 with a 2.75 GAA and a .879 SV% in two games (one start).
COYOTES LEADERS: D Alex Goligoski leads Arizona with 18 points (5- 13=18) in 35 games against Minnesota…C Brad Richardson owns 17 points (7-10=17) in 37 matches…C Derek Stepan has eight points (2-6=8) in 14 contests…RW Richard Panik owns eight points (4-4=8) in 17 games…D Jason Demers has eight points (3-5=8) in 30 games.
COYOTES GOALIES: Raanta is 4-3-0 with a 2.82 GAA and a .896 SV% in nine career games (eight starts) vs. the Wild…Kuemper stopped 26-of-28 shots in his sole career start against Minnesota (10/16)…G Calvin Pickard is 2-3-0 with a 2.75 GAA and a .919 SV% in five career games (four starts).

Did you know?

The Wild is 13-3-3 in its last 19 meetings against Arizona, including a 12-game point streak (9-0-3, 1/9/14-2/8/18) - the longest point streak in franchise history vs. an NHL opponent…Minnesota is 10-3-1 in the last 14 games at Arizona; including 7-1-1 in the last nine contests.