The Wild Warmup is presented by Bryant Heating and Cooling
Following a disappointing finale to its four-game road trip, the Wild returns home to begin a lengthy stretch of games at Xcel Energy Center on Monday when it begins a two-game series against the Vegas Golden Knights.
Minnesota and Vegas met for the first time this season at the start of last week, with the Golden Knights erasing a two-goal third-period deficit en route to an overtime win last Monday. They followed that up with a 5-1 win two nights later in a game where the final score was not indicative of how tight the game was.
The Wild continued to Arizona, where it split a two-game series over the weekend, concluding with a 5-2 loss on Saturday night.
Vegas begins the two-game set with a six-point lead in the West Division standings, and also has a game in hand. Just six points separate second-place St. Louis from sixth-place Arizona in an air tight division race where every game is taking on added importance.
Last week shows just how tight things are.
Just one week ago, the Wild led by two in the third period and appeared poised to run its winning streak to seven games and take over sole possession of the division race.
But Vegas rallied, won in overtime, then won the second game on Wednesday. It followed by sweeping two games in San Jose over the weekend, burnishing its lead atop the West.
The back-to-back games in Arizona for the Wild wrapped up a brutal stretch of six games in nine nights, a segment of contests the Wild finished 3-2-1.
But it won't get any easier.
Minnesota won't get consecutive days off until March 26-28. Between now and then, the Wild will play 10 games in 18 days. Eight of those games will come at home, however, a place where Minnesota has played only eight times all season.
"Everybody is doing it," Wild coach Dean Evason said on Saturday. "So we have to find a way when we don't have that energy to do the right things to get a game like we had here [Saturday]."
In that game, the Wild jumped ahead to a 2-0 lead, then ran out of gas in the second, allowing the Coyotes to tie it after two before pulling away with three third period goals to secure the two-game split.
Like the Wild, Vegas also played back-to-back games on Friday and Saturday, winning 5-4 in overtime on Friday before coasting to a 4-0 win on Saturday. Those games started a six-game road trip for the Golden Knights, who will play in St. Paul tonight and Wednesday before proceeding to St. Louis for back-to-back games on Friday and Saturday.
Vegas is led offensively by captain Mark Stone, who has 21 assists and 27 points. Five of those assists came in the Golden Knights' comeback win over the Wild last Monday. The red-hot Stone has points in four straight, tallying multiple points in three of those four.
Max Pacioretty and Alex Tuch are each tied for the team lead in goals with 12. Pacioretty scored twice in the comeback win over Minnesota while Tuch scored once in each game, including the tying goal in the final minute of regulation last Monday.
Goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury enters the game riding a personal five-game winning streak, boasting a 12-3-0 record with a 1.60 goals-against average and a .942 save percentage this season.
