The Minnesota Wild will try to close out their season with three straight wins when they face off against the Seattle Kraken on Thursday night in Saint Paul, Minn.
Minnesota (39-32-10, 87 points) is facing a long offseason after missing the playoffs for the first time since the 2018-19 campaign. The Wild have continued to play hard despite being eliminated from postseason contention, coming off back-to-back wins over the San Jose Sharks and Los Angeles Kings.
Meanwhile, Seattle (33-35-13, 79 points) also hopes to end its season on a positive note even though it will not compete in the playoffs. The Kraken have dropped four straight against the Sharks, Dallas Stars, St. Louis Blues and Winnipeg Jets.
Kraken rookie Tye Kartye said he and his teammates have to play with maximum effort in their season finale. Kartye, 22, has 10 goals and nine assists in 76 games.
“We’ve got to just keep playing for each other,” Kartye said. “Obviously, every game matters. It doesn’t matter what game it is. It’s important to us, so we want to just try and fight back. We did (in our last game), but we just fell a little bit short.”
Seattle will face Wild veteran goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury.
The 39-year-old Fleury was set to become a free agent this offseason, with questions swirling around about his future in recent weeks. Fleury and the team put an end to those questions when the netminder signed a one-year, $2.5 million extension for the 2024-25 season on Wednesday.
Fleury is 17-14-5 with a 2.98 goals-against average and a .895 save percentage in 39 games (35 starts) this season. He ranks second all-time with 561 career victories, and he is one of only four goaltenders to appear in at least 1,000 games.
“All good stuff. All cool,” Fleury said. “But at the same time, though, I’ve always played not for me, not for my stats. It’s about winning, and it’s disappointing to miss (the) playoffs. That’s the one thing that’s top of my mind first about this year is missing it.
“It’s the best time of year, right? You want to battle in the playoffs every year, and that’s always the goal. So that’s what’s tough about it.”
Fleury has faced the Kraken seven times in his career. He is 5-1-1 with a 1.98 GAA and a .935 save percentage in those contests.
Seattle could turn to Joey Daccord (18-18-11, 2.45 GAA) or Philipp Grubauer (14-16-2, 2.85 GAA) in net.
Daccord has faced Minnesota twice in his career. He is 0-2-0 with a 4.52 GAA and a .842 save percentage in those games.
Grubauer has gone up against the Wild 17 times. He is 9-7-0 with a 2.95 GAA and a .894 save percentage.
This is the third meeting between the teams this season. The Wild won the first two contests on the road — a 3-0 win on Dec. 10 and a 5-2 victory on Feb. 24.
Kraken forward Jared McCann needs one more goal to reach 30. The ninth-year veteran has surpassed that mark once in his career, when he scored 40 last season.
Wild star forward Kirill Kaprizov will look to add to another impressive statistical campaign. Kaprizov leads the team with 95 points (45 goals, 50 assists) in 74 games.
–Field Level Media
