Dallas @ Minnesota preview

Last Meeting ( Feb 1, 2019 ) Minnesota 1, Dallas 3

With Ben Bishop providing nearly an impenetrable shield in net, the Dallas Stars are holding down the top wild card in the Western Conference and breathing down the neck of third-place St. Louis for third place in the Central Division. The Stars go for their sixth win in seven games when they visit the Minnesota Wild on Thursday night.

Bishop turned away 35 shots in Tuesday's 2-0 win over Buffalo to register his third consecutive shutout and has allowed three goals in winning two of three decisions against Minnesota this season. "Things are going my way right now," Bishop said. "Just try to ride the high as long as you can. Just get wins. Doesn't really matter about the goals against." The Wild opened a five-game homestand with a 3-0 loss to San Jose on Monday night and fell one point behind Arizona for the second wild card. "It's obviously not the start we wanted," defenseman Anthony Bitetto said after Minnesota lost for the eighth time in its last nine at home (1-5-3). "But, you know what, we have a handful of games coming up in our building, and we've got to turn it around if we want to make the playoffs."

TV: 8 p.m. ET, FS Southwest (Dallas), FS North, FS Wisconsin (Minnesota)

ABOUT THE STARS (36-28-5): Bishop, the league's Second Star of the Week, is the third netminder in franchise history to post three straight shutouts and his scoreless streak of 204 minutes, 20 seconds, is second to Ed Belfour (219:26, November 2000). Bishop has won four straight starts and has yielded five goals over six outings since missing nearly three weeks due to an upper-body injury. "As the season has gone along, we've really found our identity and everybody has bought into playing really good defensive hockey," forward Blake Comeau said.

ABOUT THE WILD (33-29-8): The top priority for Minnesota at Wednesday's practice was to work on its special teams, particularly a sputtering power play that resembles "five strangers on the ice,” according to leading scorer Zach Parise. The Wild failed on all three chances with the man advantage against San Jose and are mired in an 0-for-18 funk over the past six games. "Sometimes it feels like you don’t know where that next guy is," Parise said. "And to me, when you’re on a good power play ... you know without even looking where that guy is.”

OVERTIME

1. Stars C Tyler Seguin has scored twice versus the Wild this season and has 12 goals and 31 points in 27 meetings.

2. Wild F Joel Eriksson Ek (lower body) was injured in Monday's game and is expected to miss a week.

3. Stars rookie F Roope Hintz has scored four times in the last seven games.

PREDICTION: Wild 2, Stars 1