Wild Warmup: Minnesota at Florida

The essentials

The Wild Warmup is presented by Bryant Heating and Cooling
SUNRISE, Fla. -- After a quick two-game homestand, the road-heavy early portion of the schedule continues as the Wild begins a three-game trip Saturday night against the Florida Panthers at FLA Live Arena.
Minnesota will play back-to-back games this weekend against both Florida clubs, shifting to Tampa Bay for a match against the Lightning on Sunday afternoon. The final game of the current road trip shifts north to New Jersey on Wednesday before the Wild returns home for Thanksgiving and the start of a five-game homestand on Black Friday.
But before the Wild can enjoy some turkey and mashed potatoes, as well as the comforts of home for more than a few days, it will aim to find success in one of the toughest back-to-backs the NHL has to offer.
Florida's 27 points are the most in the NHL, as the Panthers are off to a 12-2-3 start to the year. Tampa Bay, currently third in the Atlantic Division with 21 points, is the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions.
For its part, the Wild is coming off arguably its most complete game of the season Thursday, a 7-2 win over the Dallas Stars at Xcel Energy Center.
Minnesota led 2-0 after one period and 3-0 after two before blowing the game open with four goals in the final 20 minutes of regulation.
"I think we had a lot of those games that were a little more stressful in the beginning of the season," said Wild forward Freddy Gaudreau. "But, in a way, it was fun to get the lead and when they would score, we would come back from it. So that was a real good effort."
Four Wild players tallied multiple points in the game, led by Kirill Kaprizov, who had a breakout four-point night, the first such game in his brief NHL career.
Mats Zuccarello, Victor Rask and Alex Goligoski had a goal and two assists apiece in the victory.
"It's great to get seven goals but we did it the right way. We played team first," said Wild coach Dean Evason. "We weren't extending our shifts. We weren't individually trying to score. We were scoring the right way, and that was certainly nice for us to see and obviously nice for the group to get rewarded when they do that."

Florida enters the night having won consecutive games against the New York Islanders and New Jersey Devils, games that kicked off a four-game homestand. The Panthers outscored those two clubs by a 9-2 margin, which is on brand, as Florida has scored more goals than any other club in the league.
Overall, the Panthers enter the day Saturday on a four-game point streak and haven't lost in regulation since a 7-3 loss to the Devils on Nov. 9.
Florida will be without one of its key pieces to the lineup, however, as captain and leading scorer Aleksander Barkov will miss the game after sustaining a lower-body injury earlier this week. He's expected to be out week-to-week.
Jonathan Huberdeau is tied with Barkov for the club lead with 17 points, while Anthony Duclair's nine goals are also tied for best on the team.
Overall, seven Panthers have at least 10 points this season and another four have nine.
Sergei Bobrovsky has started the season on fire, posting a 7-0-2 record in 10 games with a 1.78 goals-against average and a .942 save percentage. Spencer Knight has been solid too, going 5-2-1 in eight games (seven starts), including a 45-save performance Thursday night in the win over the Devils.
Related:
- Wild's trip to South Florida means a homecoming for Duhaime