Los Angeles @ Minnesota preview

Last Meeting ( Jan 15, 2019 ) Los Angeles 2, Minnesota 3

The Minnesota Wild have endured a virtual house of horrors on the road this season, losing six of seven away from Xcel Energy Center to plummet into a share of the cellar in the Central Division. With six of their next eight contests away from home, the Wild hope to take advantage of a rare helping of home cooking on Saturday against the Los Angeles Kings.

Minnesota won back-to-back contests at home before falling for the seventh time in 10 games this season with a 4-0 setback at Nashville on Thursday. The Wild return home, however, where they own 16-4-5 record in the last 25 encounters with the Kings -- including a current seven-game point streak since March 28, 2015 (6-0-1). Los Angeles, which occupies the basement of the Pacific Division, fell for the fourth time in six outings with Thursday's 5-2 setback against St. Louis in the second contest of a four-game road trip. Captain Anze Kopitar, who has 34 points (11 goals, 23 assists) in 45 career meetings against the Wild, set up Alex Iafallo's second-period goal to move within one point of 900 in his career.

TV: 8 p.m. ET, FS West (Los Angeles), FS North, FS Wisconsin (Minnesota)

ABOUT THE KINGS (4-6-0): Coach Todd McLellan wasn't shy about sharing his displeasure after Los Angeles surrendered three power-play goals in a game for the second time on the young season. "I expect our guys to be a little bit better. We have some guys that play that type of game that really didn't perform that well (on Thursday)," McLellan said. Jeff Carter, who opened the scoring on Thursday, has 11 goals and as many assists in 30 career meetings with Minnesota.

ABOUT THE WILD (3-7-0): Captain Mikko Koivu scored a goal and set up three others and Zach Parise (one goal, two assists) and defenseman Ryan Suter (three assists) each contributed three points to help Minnesota complete a three-game season sweep of Los Angeles in 2018-19. Suter lamented the Wild's inability to convert despite outshooting the Predators by a 13-4 margin in the first period. "We had a good start," Suter said. "We played a solid first 20 minutes. Once they scored it was hard to get the momentum back. They were coming. Would have been nice to get one in the first and put them on their heels."

OVERTIME

1. Los Angeles G Jonathan Quick owns a 13-7-5 record with a 2.53 goals-against average in 25 career starts versus Minnesota.

2. Wild G Devan Dubnyk went 2-0-0 against the Kings last season and registered a 1.00 goals-against average and .962 save percentage to improve to 9-5-2 in 17 career encounters with the club.

3. Kings LW Ilya Kovalchuk trails Pavel Bure (437) by one goal for fourth place all-time among Russian-born players. .

PREDICTION: Wild 3, Kings 2