Wild Warmup: Minnesota at Detroit

The essentials

The Wild Warmup is presented by Bryant Heating and Cooling
DETROIT -- Coming off its most complete game in some time, the Wild will attempt to build on an impressive victory Thursday night when it plays the Detroit Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena.
Minnesota won 5-2 over the New York Rangers Tuesday at Xcel Energy Center, a victory which snapped a brief two-game skid but came in the midst of a stretch of games where the Wild had won just two of its previous 10 contests.
The Wild won 5-4 in Philadelphia one week ago, but that victory required a frantic third-period comeback, and Minnesota was unable to build on it the following night against Buffalo.
Tuesday's win provided a much different feeling, as the Wild never trailed in knocking off one of the NHL's top clubs for the second time this season.
"This game, we led the way, kind of. We scored the first two goals and led again 3-2 and kept going. We never stopped," said Wild forward Kevin Fiala. "In the third period, we did a great job to not give them any life. We kept on rolling, playing great. I'm just very proud of group."
Now the goal will be to build on it.
Minnesota looked far more like the club that was one of the NHL's top teams over the first half of the season than it did the fragile bunch that had appeared over the past couple of weeks.
But simply speaking it into existence won't be good enough. The Wild will have to come back to the rink Thursday in Detroit and show it.
"We gotta back it up, right? We gotta play the exact same way now consistently and just have that same effort. Because we had some success [Tuesday] doesn't mean it's going to continue," said Wild coach Dean Evason. "It's gotta continue because of how we play and how we prepare and what we do and how we come when the puck's dropped in our next game there in Detroit.
"There's no easy games. There's no easy games going forward. We got a lot left, so hopefully we've caught something and we can go forward."
Like last week's back-to-back games in Philly and Buffalo, the Wild will again play road back-to-backs this Thursday and Friday, beginning in Detroit and continuing to Columbus, where Minnesota will play the Blue Jackets.
The two games mark the final ones on the road for the Wild in more than two weeks, as it embarks on a franchise record nine-game homestand beginning Sunday against the Nashville Predators, on a night the Wild will retire Mikko Koivu's No. 9 into the rafters at Xcel Energy Center.
"We have Detroit and Columbus coming up and those are teams we can't overlook. We have to play them like we did against the Rangers," said Wild forward Marcus Foligno. "This schedule now it's going to be game by game. You can't overlook teams. We did that a week ago and we got beat. It's all fun now. We won a game. But we understand we have to go on a streak here."
The Wild will attempt to finish off a season sweep of the Red Wings on Thursday night. Minnesota upended Detroit 7-4 last month in St. Paul, getting a hat trick and an assist from Matt Boldy as well as two goals and a helper from Kirill Kaprizov.
Cam Talbot, who did not play the last time these clubs met, seems likely to get the start between the posts after making 23 saves in the win on Tuesday.
Detroit is coming off a 9-2 home loss to the Arizona Coyotes on Tuesday night. It was the Wings' third consecutive defeat, following a weekend back-to-back in Florida against the Lightning and Panthers last weekend.
The Red Wings have lost five of their past six and have given up five goals or more in four of those contests, surrendering a total of 36 goals during that span (six goals per game).
Offensively, the Wings are led by veteran captain Dylan Larkin, who has a team-high 27 goals and 57 points in 52 games played. Tyler Bertuzzi has 24 goals and 48 points while rookies Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider have been two of the best in the NHL this season. Raymond has 16 goals and 43 points while Seider leads the club with 36 assists.
Alex Nedeljkovic has played a bulk of the games this season, going 15-17-5 with a 3.19 goals-against average and a .901 save percentage in 41 games (37 starts).