Wild Warmup: Minnesota vs. Dallas

The essentials

The opponent

Dallas has found itself on a downhill slide recently, falling from the top wild card spot to sixth in the Central Division after an eight-game losing streak. The Stars eked out an overtime victory on Tuesday in Philadelphia to stop the freefall, but are desperate for points to regain lost ground.
This season, Minnesota and Dallas have split the series, each winning on home ice. Thursday's game is the first of a home-and-home series that will switch to Texas for a Saturday night matchup.
The dangerous trio of Tyler Seguin, Jamie Benn and Alexander Radulov lead the Stars in points, with 73, 69 and 67, respectively. Not surprisingly, they're also the top three goal-scorers; Seguin has potted 39, Benn 28, and Radulov 27.
In the midst of a Norris Trophy-worthy season, defenseman John Klingberg leads the Stars with 55 assists, barely trailing the three big guns with 62 points of his own.
Stars goalie Ben Bishop has missed the last four games with a knee injury and will not play either game against Minnesota. Instead, Kari Lehtonen -- who made 30 saves and backstopped Dallas in its most recent win against the Wild -- will earn the nod in net. Lehtonen is 13-13-3 on the season with a 2.54 goals-against average and a save percentage of .912. In his career against Minnesota, he has posted a record of 11-10-3.

Connections

• Dallas forward Tyler Pitlick hails from Minneapolis and played one season (2009-10) with the Minnesota State Mavericks.
• Martin Hanzal of the Stars (currently on injured reserve) tallied 13 points in 20 games with Minnesota during the 2016-17 season.
• Stars assistant coach Curt Fraser played parts of three seasons with the Minnesota North Stars (1987-90), while assistant coach Rick Wilson served as an assistant coach for the Wild from 2010-16.

Fan Celebration night

Thursday night's game is the second-to-last home game of the regular season, and is also
Fan Celebration night
with a full slate of events scheduled.
The chairman of the board of the Hobey Baker Memorial Award Foundation, James L. Nichols, will kick off the evening by making the "Let's Play Hockey" call prior to the game. Also before the puck drops, the 2017 State of Hockey Legacy Award winner, Bob Naegele, Jr.
will be honored
.
The celebration continues with "Jerseys Off Our Backs". Fans will be selected randomly to receive game-worn Wild jerseys from that evening's contest, each delivered and autographed by the respective player in a special on-ice ceremony following the game. The auction will also close out the St. Patrick's Day player warm-up jerseys that were worn March 13. All proceeds benefit the Minnesota Wild Foundation.
In addition, all fans in attendance will receive a commemorative team poster on their way out of the arena, presented by FOX Sports North.

Point streaks aplenty

Though Minnesota fell in a shootout against Nashville on Tuesday, it snagged an extra point in the standings thanks to Eric Staal's 40th goal of the season. With the loss in bonus time, the Wild extended its point streak to six games, posting a record of 3-0-3 in that span.
The Wild also has points in four straight games against the Stars at Xcel Energy Center.
Meanwhile, Zach Parise was retroactively awarded an assist on Staal's goal, pushing his personal point streak to four games (two goals and two assists).
Related:
- Staal's dream season part of career resurgence in Minnesota - Central Intelligence: Just another day in the division - Wild sharpens playoff edge in shootout loss to Predators