Minnesota @ San Jose preview
SAP Center at San Jose
Last Meeting ( Mar 11, 2019 ) San Jose 3, Minnesota 0
Struggling teams looking to build off a standout performance in their last contest and begin climbing back into the playoff chase meet Thursday night when the San Jose Sharks host the Minnesota Wild. The Sharks snapped a five-game losing streak with a 4-2 home triumph against Chicago on Tuesday while Minnesota rallied from a two-goal deficit to knock off host Anaheim by the same score on the same night to halt a three-game slide.
San Jose scored eight times during its losing streak before receiving a goal and an assist from forwards Timo Meier and Tomas Hertl in the win over the Blackhawks, but coach Peter DeBoer was more pleased with the defense. “The good news is in two of our last three games, we’re starting to see the signs of what we’re capable of being as a team, and the way we want to play,” he told reporters of Tuesday’s contest and Friday, when the Sharks allowed 19 shots in a loss to Winnipeg.” The Wild, who have matched the Sharks with five wins in the first month of the season, had lost three games in a row (0-2-1) before Kevin Fiala scored midway through the second period and Minnesota added three goals in the third Tuesday to end a five-game road losing streak. “We’ve been playing really good hockey the last five or six games,” Wild right wing Mats Zuccarello told reporters after scoring for the third straight contest. “We’ve just been right there, but we haven’t gotten the points.”
TV: 10:30 p.m. ET, FS North, FS Wisconsin (Minnesota), NBCS California (San Jose)
ABOUT THE WILD (5-9-1): Zuccarello posted five of his six points in the last four contests and center Eric Staal has also warmed up after a cold start with three goals along with three assists during a five-game streak to take over the team lead with 11 points. Left wing Jason Zucker boasts five points in a five-game stretch to move into second on the team with nine while Fiala has scored in back-to-back contests for his first two of the season. Goalie Devan Dubnyk (2-6-1, 3.68 goals-against average, .883 save percentage), who sat out Tuesday’s victory, looks to find his top form again and the next outing will be the 500th of his career.
ABOUT THE SHARKS (5-10-1): Defenseman Radim Simek returned to the lineup Tuesday for the first time since March 12 because of a knee injury and had one shot in 20 minutes, 37 seconds. “I thought he was great tonight, and he makes a big difference,” DeBoer told reporters of Simek, who is a plus-7 in 42 NHL games. “It’s not something we don’t know, but when he was in our lineup last (season), we were a different team.” Hertl has four points in four games to tie defenseman Brent Burns for the team lead with 14 - one better than left wing Evander Kane, who tops the club with nine goals after scoring in back-to-back contests.
OVERTIME
1. The Sharks entered Wednesday leading the league in penalty killing percentage (90.2) and the Wild were 14th (83.0).
2. Minnesota D Carson Soucy leads the team with a plus-4 rating and is the only blueliner who is a plus.
3. San Jose F Melker Karlsson missed Tuesday’s game with an upper-body injury and is questionable.
PREDICTION: Sharks 4, Wild 3