The Minnesota Wild will look to extend a pair of streaks on Sunday afternoon when they visit the Winnipeg Jets.
The Wild recorded a 5-0 romp over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday to mark their season-high fourth straight win and improve to 6-0-1 in their last seven games.
Matt Boldy collected two goals and an assist on Friday, boosting his point streak to six games (six goals, four assists).
“Sometimes you feel good and stuff follows you,” said Boldy, who has eight goals in his last eight games after scoring just once in his previous 10. “The puck hits your stick and you score. Sometimes it doesn’t. Just kind of one of those times.”
Kirill Kaprizov has 16 points (seven goals, nine assists) in his past 14 games after joining Joel Eriksson Ek by recording a goal and an assist on Friday.
Filip Gustavsson turned aside all 19 shots he faced on Friday to give Minnesota its third shutout in its last six games and NHL-best fourth of the season.
“(Friday’s game) was solid from top to bottom,” Minnesota coach John Hynes said. “I thought we played a fast game, whether that was skating fast, I thought we moved the pucks well. We executed. We played north. … When we play that way and we make strong puck decisions coming out of our own end through the neutral zone, then it sets us up to be a strong forecheck O-zone team.
“I thought we did that on the other side of it. From a defensive standpoint, we had great sticks, good positioning.”
The Jets were handed a pair of setbacks on Friday.
First, they announced reigning Hart Trophy winner and three-time Vezina Trophy recipient Connor Hellebuyck will undergo a minor arthroscopic knee procedure and will be sidelined for four to six weeks.
Eric Comrie is expected to handle the bulk of the workload in net for the Jets, who recalled goaltender Thomas Milic from the AHL’s Manitoba Moose.
Comrie made 24 saves on Friday night in a 4-3 setback to the Carolina Hurricanes.
“(Comrie) made some big stops in the first there, and then on the penalty kill he had to make a couple of really big stops,” Winnipeg coach Scott Arniel said. “It’s not a situation where we ask him to stop 40. We need to play better in front of him. A couple of mistakes we made are things that we need to clean up for him. Whether it’s him or whether it’s (Hellebuyck), we can’t give up those kind of opportunities. We gave up four goals. We’re chasing the game. I just thought he was rock-solid, and he’s just his consistent self.”
Gabriel Vilardi, who scored two goals on Friday, said the team has full confidence in Comrie.
“Eric comes out with the same mindset every day, so we come out with the same mindset every day,” Vilardi said. “He’s playing more now, obviously. But he’s up for that challenge. It doesn’t change much for us.”
Defenseman Josh Morrissey also tallied to extend his point streak to seven games (four goals, seven assists). He had an assist on Kyle Connor’s overtime goal in Winnipeg’s 4-3 win over Minnesota on Oct. 28 in Saint Paul, Minn.
–Field Level Media
