Minnesota @ Dallas preview

Last Meeting ( Jan 18, 2020 ) Dallas 0, Minnesota 7

The Dallas Stars came up short of a perfect trip to the New York Metropolitan area last time out and look to take care of business at home against the Minnesota Wild on Friday. The Stars are 3-1-1 in their last five contests and earned victories at New Jersey and the New York Rangers before giving up a late power-play tally and losing 4-3 in overtime to end the trek against the New York Islanders on Tuesday.

“You can’t beat yourself in that third game,” Dallas interim coach Rick Bowness told reporters. “We had the chance to take six (points) out of six and that’s disappointing. Bad decisions, five penalties. You’re coming in here taking five penalties and you know you’re tired, it’s disappointing because it was self-inflicted.” The Stars are comfortably third in the Central Division, but won’t take the last-place Wild lightly after suffering an embarrassing 7-0 defeat to Minnesota just before the All-Star break. The Wild are trying to stay in the race for the playoffs despite being in the cellar, winning for the third time in four games Thursday with a 4-2 triumph against Vancouver at home to pull within four points of Calgary for the second wild card in the Western Conference. Veteran left wing Zach Parise recorded his team-leading 20th goal in the victory - giving him six in the last eight games - and is slated to play his 1,000th game Friday.

TIME: 8:30 p.m. ET. TV: NHL Network, FS North, FS Wisconsin, FS Southwest Plus

ABOUT THE WILD (25-22-6): Veteran center Eric Staal has one assist in three games since the All-Star break, but leads Minnesota with 39 points - two more than defenseman Ryan Suter, who scored once and set up six others in his last seven contests. Forward Kevin Fiala had a goal and an assist in Thursday’s victory for his second consecutive multi-point contest. Alex Stalock turned aside 24 shots to earn the victory over Vancouver and Devan Dubnyk (9-13-2, .890 save percentage) is expected to get the start in net Friday after giving up six goals in his last outing against Boston on Feb. 1.

ABOUT THE STARS (30-18-5): Veteran forward Joe Pavelski had an assist against the Islanders after recording three goals combined on the first two legs of the trip to push his season total to 11 and told reporters: “It’s nice to see it go in a couple times.” Tyler Seguin’s goal drought has reached 14 games, but the All-Star center leads the team with 38 points and right wing Alexander Radulov (31) is the only other player above 30. Defenseman John Klingberg had a goal Tuesday for his third point in four contests while forwards Jason Dickinson and veteran Corey Perry are each riding three-game point streaks.

OVERTIME

1. Minnesota D Carson Soucy (six goals, plus-15 rating) missed Thursday’s game because of illness and is expected to make the trip to Dallas.

2. Dallas F Denis Gurianov, the 12th pick in the 2015 draft, recorded three of his 14 goals in the last five games.

3. The Stars were 0-for-3 on the penalty kill in the last meeting and the Wild is 10-for-23 on the power play over the past eight contests.

PREDICTION: Stars 3, Wild 2