Tonight at 7;30 p.m. ET, the Vancouver Canucks (33-30-10, 76 points) and Minnesota Wild (37-24-11, 85 points) faceoff live from the Xcel Energy Center in Minnesota for the third and final meeting against each other this season. The game can be live streamed here. Vancouver fans can hear all of the action on TEAM 1040 while Minnesota fans can do the same on WCCO 830.
Vancouver aims for its third straight win while Minnesota has lost two of its last three but will be looking for its second win in a row. The Wild, which holds the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference and has a nine point lead over the Canucks, have won both prior meetings in shootouts with a 3-2 victory on Dec. 17 in Minnesota and a 2-1 triumph on Feb. 28 in Vancouver.
Not wanting his team to tire out and falter this late in the season, Wild coach Mike Yeo gave the team the day off Monday while offering an optional practice on Tuesday.
"It's not just physical, it's emotional and mental," Yeo said, according to NHL.com. "Based on the schedule we've had and the schedule we have coming up, we deemed that this was our one opportunity to try to put a little extra back in the tank and get ready for this final push."
The Canucks know how big points are this late in the season and will look to continue to battle hard tonight in Minnesota.
"Everybody's looking at the standings; we are too," Canucks coach John Tortorella told NHL.com. "All we can do is control what we have. We're going to keep trying to battle away and find points."
With Henrik Sedin (10-36-46) sidelined with a leg injury, the Canucks are paced by Ryan Kesler and Daniel Sedin, who each have 40 points. Kesler has 22 goals and 18 assists this season while Daniel Sedin has 13 markers and 27 helpers.
Jason Pominville paces the Wild with 51 points off of 27 goals and 24 assists while Zach Parise and Matt Moulson are each tied for second with 46 points. Parise has found the twine 24 times and added 22 helpers while Moulson has 21 tallies and 25 helpers.
In net, the Wild will likely turn to Ilya Bryzgalov, who is 7-8-7 with a 2.86 goals-against average and a .909 save percentage while Vancouver will likely turn to Eddie Lack, who is 14-14-4 with a 2.33 GAA and a .915 save percentage.
With points at a premium, the Canucks and Wild take the ice at Xcel Energy Center for the final meeting against each other in the regular-season tonight in Minnesota.
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