Carolina @ Minnesota preview

Last Meeting ( Mar 23, 2019 ) Minnesota 1, Carolina 5

The Minnesota Wild and Carolina Hurricanes made a deal at last season's trade deadline, a move that worked out decidedly in the latter's favor in helping to break a nine-year postseason drought. Both forwards from that trade -- Minnesota's Victor Rask and Carolina's Nino Niederreiter -- are struggling entering Saturday afternoon's matchup between the visiting Hurricanes and Wild.

Niederreiter scored 14 times in 36 regular-season games after joining Carolina to help ignite a second-half run that ended in the Eastern Conference finals, but he has only two goals and seven points this season. “You want to be the best player you can be every night," Niederreiter said. "You want to be on the board and you want to score and you want to help the team win. When they’re not going in ... it’s frustrating.” Rask had only two goals and an assist last season and is slumping again with one of each in 10 games, but Minnesota has points in five straight at home as it attempts to dig out of a 1-6-0 start. "We have been complaining about playing so many road games, so now we need to win our home games," coach Bruce Boudreau said. "It’s as simple as that."

TV: 2 p.m. ET, FS Carolina, FS North, FS Wisconsin (Minnesota)

ABOUT THE HURRICANES (11-7-1): Forward Jordan Martinook, who scored a career-high 15 goals last season but has been sidelined for 15 games after undergoing surgery to repair a core muscle injury last month, was activated off injured reserve Friday. Martinook will rejoin a rejuventated lineup that has produced 13 goals in back-to-back victories after scoring only seven times in a four-game slide, with forwards Sebastian Aho and Teuvo Teravainen each collecting four points in the two wins. Goaltender Petr Mrazek owns a 2-2-0 record and 2.48 goals-against average versus the Wild.

ABOUT THE WILD (7-11-1): Jordan Greenway has been a physical presence with at least four hits in four of his six games this month, but he used his 6-foot-6, 225-pound frame to end a scoring drought dating to March 22 with a deflection off his body for the winning tally in Thursday's game. "It's good for sure. My mentality was if I kept doing the right things eventually it'd come," Greenway said. "I felt like lately I had been doing a lot of good things even though maybe I wasn't producing as much as I wanted to." Kevin Fiala is on a tear with four goals and six points in six games.

OVERTIME

1. Wild F Zach Parise scored his 59th power-play goal with the Wild, tying F Marian Gaborik for second on the team's career list -- one behind captain Mikko Koivu.

2. The Hurricanes placed F Brian Gibbons on waivers Friday.

3. Wild G Devan Dubnyk is 7-3-1 with a 3.07 goals-against average versus Carolina.

PREDICTION: Wild 4, Hurricanes 3