Wild Warmup: Minnesota at Carolina

The essentials

Jordan Greenway barreled toward the net, all 6-foot-6, 227 pounds of him careening toward Braden Holtby's left, then a sudden move the opposite direction followed by a flourish of a goal that set the Wild on its way to a gargantuan 2-1 victory Friday night at Washington.
Right place. Right time. No hesitation. No overthinking. Pure power.
Whether it's being on the road, where the Wild have enjoyed a puzzling amount of relative success this season, or just thriving off the gravity of the moment, Minnesota recaptured the mojo this late-season Stanley Cup Playoff push requires. Saturday night, the club, its coach and its faithful followers get to see if it's fleeting or not.
"When we have the focus that we did tonight, the confidence, the commitment, I think we can do a lot of good things," Greenway told reporters after Friday's win in the defending Stanley Cup champs' home barn. "I think we can beat anyone."

On the 23rd of March, 2019, "anyone" includes a familiar face.
It'll be Minnesota's first collision with the Hurricanes since General Manager Paul Fenton traded forward Nino Niederreiter to Carolina in exchange for Victor Rask. On a more macro level, the Wild (79 points) needs to gain more standings ground in order to hold off the likes of Colorado (78 points), Arizona (78), Chicago (74) and Vancouver (74) with just seven games left in the regular season.
The Hurricanes are in a postseason chase of their own, currently occupying the Eastern Conference's top wild card spot. With 87 points, they're two points ahead of Montreal and four back of Pittsburgh for third place in the Metropolitan Division.
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Carolina started the season by becoming infamous for its postgame "Storm Surge" celebrations then later the ensuing "Bunch of Jerks" marketing campaign after Canadian hockey analyst Don Cherry criticized the showing. Lately, though, the 'Canes have made headlines for a torrid run during the season's second half.
They're 6-3-1 in their past 10 games and have lost consecutive contests just once since the middle of January.
It's thanks in large part to All-Star Sebastian Aho, whose 79 points are tops on the roster and tied for 19th in the NHL as of Friday night. He's played on a line with Niederreiter, who has 12 goals and 12 assists in 27 games with Carolina.
Wingers Teuvo Teravainen (67 points), Justin Williams (47 and Michael Ferland (36) are also dangerous. In goal, Petr Mrazek and Curtis McElhinney have split most of the work, combining for a 2.55 goals-against average and .911 save percentage.
So Minnesota will need to avoid any type of hangover. The last time the Wild beat a top-flight team like Washington on the road was March 7 at Tampa Bay; the next day, Minnesota fell 6-2 against a Florida team that's currently seven points back of a playoff spot.
That started a 1-4-1 stretch that concluded Friday.
"Temporarily, we're in a playoff spot," Wild coach Bruce Boudreau said in his very first comments following Friday's triumph. "We've got to do it again tomorrow. Quite frankly, what I think of is playing a great game in Tampa then having nothing left for Florida. We can't afford that. We've got to be ready again."

Scoreboard watching

A busy home-stretch Saturday in the NHL has every team with which Minnesota is jostling for postseason contention in action. The Coyotes (36-32-6) are at New Jersey at noon, the Avalanche (33-29-12) host Chicago (32-31-10) at 2 p.m., and Dallas (38-30-6, first place in the wild-card standings) has a home date with Pittsburgh at 7 p.m.
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Watch out for the rooks

Wild rookies tallied four of the team's six points in Friday's 2-1 win at Washington. Minnesota ranks T-5th in goals (24) and eighth in points (60) by rookies this season.
The Wild ranks sixth in the NHL in percentage of goals (11.9) and seventh in percentage of points (11.0) by rookies.

Road leaders

Minnesota is 9-3-2 in its last 14 road games and 13-5-2 in its last 20 road contests. The Wild ranks T-3rd in the NHL in points (28) and fourth in wins on the road since Dec. 29.
The Wild is 20-15-2 on the road this season - the fourth time in franchise history it has recorded 20 road wins in a season.
Zach Parise leads the Wild in road scoring with 34 points (15-19=34), Eric Staal is second with 27 points (8-19=27), Jared Spurgeon (9-9=18) and Ryan Suter (6-12=18) rank T-3rd with 18 points each.
Devan Dubnyk is 13-4-2 with a 2.27 GAA, a .923 SV% and two shutouts in his last 19 road starts and leads the NHL in road wins since Dec. 29.

Back-to-backs

Minnesota completes its 15th and final set of back-to-back games at Carolina. The Wild is 9-6-0 in the first game of back-to-backs and 6-5-3 in the second.

Series notes

ALL-TIME WILD RECORD: 12-7-6 (9-3-3 at Xcel Energy Center, 3-4-3 at Carolina)
2018-19: Minnesota earned a point in its first season meeting against Carolina with a 5-4 overtime loss at Xcel Energy Center (10/13)…LW Zach Parise (0-2=2) and D Jared Spurgeon (1-1=2) registered two points apiece…LW Jason Zucker also netted a goal…G Devan Dubnyk stopped 52-of-57 shots - his most shots faced and tied for most saves in a single game…C Sebastian Aho led the Hurricanes with four points (2-2=4)…RW Justin Williams tallied three points (1-2=3)…D Justin Faulk (0-2=2), D Brett Pesce (1-1=2) and LW Teuvo Teravainen (0-2=2) collected two points each…G Curtis McElhinney made 19 saves.
WILD LEADERS: Parise leads Minnesota with 31 points (18-13=31) in 33 contests against Carolina…C Mikko Koivu owns 16 points (2-14=16) in 18 matches…C Eric Fehr has 13 points (7-6=13) in 42 games… Spurgeon has 11 points (1-10=11) in 11 contests…D Ryan Suter owns 11 assists in 18 matches.
WILD GOALIES: Dubnyk is 7-2-1 with a 2.90 GAA and a .914 SV% in 11 games (10 starts) vs. the Hurricanes…G Alex Stalock is 0-1-2 with a 3.52 GAA and a .901 SV% in three starts.
HURRICANES LEADERS:Williams leads Carolina with 23 points (10- 13=23) in 32 games against Minnesota…Aho owns seven points (2- 5=7) in five contests…RW Micheal Ferland has six points (3-3=6) in 10 matches.
HURRICANES GOALIES: G Petr Marzek is 1-2-0 with a 2.96 GAA and a .906 SV% in three starts…McElhinney is 3-1-1 with a 2.56 GAA, an .897 SV% and one shutout in six games (five starts).
CONNECTIONS: C Eric Staal was drafted by Carolina in the first round (2nd overall) of the 2003 NHL Entry Draft and collected 775 points (322- 453=775) and 678 PIM in 909 games in 12 seasons (2003-16)…He ranks first on the Hurricanes all-time list in SHG (16) and shots on goal (3,033), is second in goals, PPG (105), GWG (47), assists and points and ranks third in games played…He is the older brother of Jordan Staal…C Victor Rask was selected by the Hurricanes in the second round (42nd overall) of the 2011 NHL Entry Draft and registered 163 points (63-100=163) in 339 games in five seasons (2014-19)…Faulk is a native of South St. Paul… RW Nino Niederreiter recorded 228 points (110-118=228), including 16 GWG in 434 games with the Wild in six seasons (2013-19).

Did you know?

Minnesota has earned points in 14 of its last 17 games against Carolina (10-3-4)…Minnesota is 3-1-3 in its last seven games at PNC Arena, including four contests decided in a shootout.