Wild Warmup: Minnesota vs. Toronto

The essentials

The Wild Warmup is presented by Bryant Heating and Cooling
ST. PAUL -- When the Wild and Toronto Maple Leafs drop the puck on Saturday night at Xcel Energy Center, two of the best - and hottest - teams in the National Hockey League will be squaring off in what should be a fast-paced and entertaining hockey game.
Saturday marks the fifth and final game of a five-game homestand for Minnesota, which has won each of the first four games by a combined score of 21-7. In an age defined by tightly contested, one-goal hockey games, the Wild has won each game on its current home stretch by at least two goals - and in three of those games, by three or more.
It's been a stretch of hockey paralleled by few in the league, and one that has vaulted the Wild to the top of the Central Division and the Western Conference standings more than a quarter of the way through the regular season schedule.
Only the Florida Panthers have scored more goals than the Wild's 86 this season, and nobody has more than Minnesota's 64 goals since Nov. 2.
Only Florida has more four-goal games than the Wild, which is tied with Washington for second-most in the NHL.
Rookie Rem Pitlick became the 12th different player on the Wild roster to reach double digits in points on the season, which is tied with the Panthers for most in the league.
All of those stats have led to a 16-6-1 start, the most points the Wild have had through 23 games in franchise history.

"Finishing [the homestand] five for five would be huge," said Wild goaltender Cam Talbot. "Any time you go perfect on a homestand, you bank all those points ... it's what you look forward to when you come home after a long road trip like last time.
"But I think just playing our game, going about things the right way, it's going to take a lot of attention to detail, every little detail in our game against a team like this. You look forward to opportunities like this and we want to close out this homestand on a high note."
To do that, the Wild will need to upend a Toronto club that has lost just twice in its past 17 games dating back to the end of October, and like Minnesota, enters play Saturday night riding a five-game winning streak.
The Leafs are coming off arguably the most impressive win of that stretch, an 8-3 thrashing of the Colorado Avalanche at Scotiabank Arena on Wednesday night, a lone home game for Toronto in a stretch of six-of-seven on the road. The Leafs are 4-0 so far on that road-heavy portion of the schedule, one that concludes Sunday in Winnipeg when they face the Jets.

Overall, Toronto has a 7-3-0 mark away from home this season, with all three losses coming in the Leafs' first three road contests of the season.
Since it's 0-3 road start, Toronto has won seven straight, with only two of those wins coming in one-goal scenarios.
The rest have been multi-goal victories.
"It's obviously going to be a huge test," Talbot said. "They're playing probably the best hockey in the NHL right now, so it's going to be a huge task at hand. They have a bunch of firepower up front and their goaltender is playing unbelievable right now, so it's going to take a full team effort."
While the Wild has a dozen players in double digit points this season, Toronto has had more of a top-heavy approach to its scoring. Seven players have reached double digit points for the Leafs, but four of them have at least 21 points.
Only two Wild players - Kirill Kaprizov and Ryan Hartman - have tallied at least 20.
John Tavares has a team high 25 points, while Auston Matthews has a club-leading 13 goals. Mitch Marner has 15 assists while William Nylander has chipped in 10 goals and 23 points.

"They've got a lot of offensive ability," said Wild coach Dean Evason. "We've got TVs too, we see the highlights every night. They present challenges, but the NHL is a great league and every team has special players and certainly we'll have to look after their special players."
Goaltender Jack Campbell has had to carry a bulk of the load this season because of an injury to veteran Petr Mrazek, who has skated in just two games. Campbell has started 18 games and has a 13-4-1 record to go with a 1.72 goals-against average and a .943 save percentage.
Campbell's 13 wins, his goals against and his save percentage are all tops in the NHL among goaltenders with at least 10 starts.
Talbot's 12 wins are tied for third-most.
"We've played a lot of real good hockey clubs, and we're excited about the challenge for sure," Evason said. "They're a good hockey club, we're a good hockey club, but we're not treating it any different."