The Dallas Stars already knocked off one of the best teams in their division this week.
Now, the Stars will try to go 2-for-2.
Dallas will aim for back-to-back victories when it faces off against the Minnesota Wild on Saturday afternoon in Saint Paul, Minn. The Stars are looking to build upon a 2-1 shootout win over the Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday, which brought Dallas (43-15-10, 96 points) within two points of the top spot in the Western Conference’s Central Division.
Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger said he and his teammates need to keep up their intensity.
“We want to win the division, win the Presidents’ Trophy,” Oettinger said. “So we gained one point on (the Avalanche), and it’s great, but still got a lot of work to do.”
The work continues against Minnesota (39-19-12, 90 points), which sits in third place in the division.
The Wild are coming off a 2-1 loss on home ice against the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday night. It marked the third regulation loss in the past four games for Minnesota.
Injuries to a couple of the Wild’s top players will not make the team’s task any easier against Dallas. Kirill Kaprizov and Joel Eriksson Ek both have been ruled out for Saturday’s game due to lower-body injuries.
Kaprizov leads the Wild with 80 points (38 goals, 42 assists) in 69 games this season. He sustained the injury two games ago and missed Thursday’s game against Chicago.
Wild captain Jared Spurgeon said he and his teammates remained confident despite the absences of Kaprizov and Eriksson Ek.
“Those are some key players,” Spurgeon said. “But we have guys that are filling roles, and we have a great team with whoever’s in.”
Meanwhile, Wild forward Nico Sturm said the recent skid should not sound any alarm bells when reporters asked about the ramifications of losing to a team lower in the standings like Chicago.
“I wouldn’t read too much into it,” Sturm said. “When I was in the situation with Colorado and Florida at the end of the year, when you’re qualified for playoffs, I actually thought that the teams that were kind of out of the picture were harder to play against a lot of times than the other teams.
” … You know you’re going to get everybody’s best, and that’s the way it’s supposed to be. We want that for ourselves. We want to be the best in the league, and this organization has worked for that over the last couple of years.”
Dallas likely will start Oettinger in net. The Minnesota native is 29-10-5 with a 2.58 goals-against average and a .902 save percentage this season. He’s 8-1-3 with a 2.26 GAA and a .924 save percentage in 14 career games against the Wild.
Minnesota could counter with Filip Gustavsson or Jesper Wallstedt in net.
Gustavsson is 25-11-6 with a 2.52 GAA and a .911 save percentage this season and he is 6-4-0 with a 2.01 GAA and a .934 save percentage in 10 games against Dallas. Wallstedt is 14-8-6 with a 2.75 GAA and a .913 save percentage on the season and is 0-1-0 with a 7.00 GAA and a .794 save percentage in one career game against the Stars.
–Field Level Media
