Minnesota @ Columbus preview

Last Meeting ( Feb 25, 2020 ) Columbus 4, Minnesota 5

The surging Minnesota Wild have four wins in six games under interim coach Dean Evason and will travel to Columbus Friday to face a struggling Blue Jackets squad for the second time in four days. Tuesday’s contest in Minnesota ended in a 5-4 setback for the Blue Jackets, who are 1-4-5 in their last 10 games and still holding on to the Eastern Conference’s final wild card spot by two points over the Carolina and the New York Rangers.

Columbus got off to a sluggish start Tuesday as Minnesota’s Eric Staal scored 94 seconds into the first period while Blue Jackets captain Nick Foligno doesn’t want the fact that it was his team’s eighth game in 13 days to be used as an excuse. “We do all that work at the start of the year to not be tired,” Foligno told reporters Tuesday after scoring for the fourth time in four games. “We just didn’t have the same compete level. We’re desperate right now, so I don’t know for what reason we dip our toe in the water right now, but its unacceptable. It’s the real reason we lost the game.” The Wild entered Thursday’s contest against the Red Wings tied for the second-fewest road wins in the Western Conference, but began a stretch of five of seven games away from home with a dominant 7-1 victory over the league’s worst team. Minnesota had 13 skaters record at least a point Thursday - with five recording multi-point efforts - and were led by defenseman Matt Dumba’s first multi-goal performance of the season and forward Kevin Fiala scoring for the ninth time in his last 12 games.

TIME: 7 p.m. ET. TV: FS North, FS Ohio

ABOUT THE WILD (31-25-7): Fiala has been on fire this month as the 23-year-old sits tied for second in the league since Feb. 4 with 17 points (nine goals, eight assists). Staal ended an 11-game goal drought with the opening goal Tuesday and followed that up with his 19th of the season Thursday - the first time since late December that the 16-year veteran scored in consecutive contests. Alex Stalock made 25 saves Thursday to continue an impressive February that has seen the goaltender compile a 6-1-1 record, 1.98 goals against average and .925 save percentage.

ABOUT THE BLUE JACKETS (31-20-14): After missing nearly two months with a knee injury, Joonas Korpisalo is expected to get his first start since Dec. 29 after the 25-year-old netminder stopped 14-of-15 shots in relief of injured Elvis Merzlikins on Monday during a 4-3 overtime victory against Ottawa. Third-year center Pierre-Luc Dubois leads the club with 46 points but his goal against the Wild was his first since Feb. 2 while he owns three assists and a minus-six rating in 12 games during that time. Rookie Emil Bemstrom scored for the third consecutive game Tuesday as the 20-year-old has eight goals and 10 assists through 51 games while averaging under 12 minutes of ice time per game.

OVERTIME

1. Foligno hit the 10-goal plateau for the 10th time in 13 NHL seasons and is four shy of 200 career goals.

2. Wild LW Zach Parise owns a team-high 21 goals, but is without one in his last seven contests and has only two over his last 14.

3. Blue Jackets D Zach Werenski scored his 19th of the season Tuesday - tops among NHL blueliners.

PREDICTION: Wild 3, Blue Jackets 2