GAMEDAY: Wild vs. Canucks

Sunday, 03.10.2013 / 6:17 PM

Minnesota Wild (12-9-2: 26 points, T-9th in Western Conference, 2nd in Northwest Division) vs. Vancouver Canucks (11-6-6: 28 points, 3rd in Western Conference, 1st in Northwest Division)

UDATED: Niklas Backstrom will get the start in net. The Wild will roll with the same lineup as last night's game in Nashville.

Tonight, the Minnesota Wild will hit the halfway point of its season tonight against division rival, Vancouver Canucks. With a win tonight, the Wild will leapfrog the Canucks in the standings in both the Northwest Division and Western Conference. The Wild sits two points behind Vancouver, but has more regulation wins on the season for the division tiebreaker.

This is the third time that the Wild and Canucks have met, with Vancouver taking both games in the series. Minnesota was upended by Vancouver, 4-1, at the Xcel Energy Center on Feb. 7 and 2-1 at Rogers Arena on Feb. 12.

With a shootout win in Nashville last night, the Wild didn’t arrive back to the State of Hockey until late in the evening so the club won’t hold a morning skate and we won’t know the starting goaltender nor lineup until later. Wild Head Coach Mike Yeo will speak to the media at about 5 p.m., so check back later with the Wild.com blog View from the Lighthouse for a lineup update.

Last night, the Wild took a 2-1 shootout against the Predators. In his return to Music City, Ryan Suter assisted on the Wild’s lone regulation goal. He fired a point shot on net on the power play, which Zach Parise tipped in for a power play goal. Mikko Koivu and Matt Cullen scored for Minnesota, while Niklas Backstrom saved two of three shooters for the victory. Backstrom also made 24 saves in regulation and overtime.

The Canucks suffered a 2-1 overtime loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets on the road Thursday. Henrik Sedin scored the lone goal for Vancouver. Cory Schneider registered 25 saves.

The Vancouver Canucks have struggled of late, which has helped allow the Wild to tighten the Northwest Division race. Vancouver has surrendered 23 goals during a 1-3-2 skid.

Henrik Sedin set a new franchise record for scoring (757) on Feb. 15, surpassing Markus Naslund, who was the previous all-time franchise scoring leader at 756. He now sits at 770 career points (176-594-770).

The Wild will have the contest for the Post-Game Slap Shot presented by Crystal Farms. The promotion is open to all fans age 12 and under. A line will form at the top of Section 123 following the game.

The Wild will wear its RED sweaters tonight.

Ryan Suter has a Wild season-best six-game point streak (1-6=7). The blueliner has 11 assists in his last 13 games and is tied for the Wild lead with 15 on the year. He ranks T-3rd in the NHL in assists amongst defensemen (15), and T-8th in points (16).

Fans can guess who's going to be hot with the Wild's HotBox Fantasy Challenge presented by the Pioneer Press for a chance to win great prizes.

Wild.com

Game Notes |

Transactions |

Injury Report |

Lighthouse |

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WildTV

Yeo - March 9

PONDcast

Wild 2, NSH 1 (SO)

Here's what the lineup looked like in last night's win against the Preds:

Parise – Koivu – Coyle
Zucker – Cullen – Setoguchi
Heatley – Brodziak – Clutterbuck
Mitchell – Konopka – Rupp

And the blue line:

Suter – Brodin
Spurgeon – Stoner
Falk – Gilbert

Backstrom is 11-13-6 with a 2.71 GAA, a .958 SV% and one shutout in 31 games (29 starts) against Vancouver. Matt Hackett has never faced the Canucks.

It seems like we’re always in the middle of a three-in-four the beginning or the end. The most important thing is to focus on the task in front of you.

- Yeo on playing through the schedule

Forwards Mikael Granlund and Pierre-Marc Bouchard and defenseman Nate Prosser will be tonight's healthy scratches.

Goaltenders Josh Harding (treatment for multiple sclerosis) and Darcy Kuemper (lower body) are both on Injured Reserve and did not travel with the team.

D Andrew Alberts (Minneapolis) and D Keith Ballard (Baudette) are Minnesota natives. Ballard played three seasons at the University of Minnesota (2001-04). LW Mason Raymond played in two seasons with the University of Minnesota-Duluth (2005-07). C Andrew Ebbett appeared in 49 games with Minnesota in 2009-10. D Cam Barker skated in 71 games with the Wild in parts of two seasons (2009-11).

Minnesota finishes its fifth of nine sets of back-to-back games this season tonight, looking for its third sweep of consecutive games. The Wild moved to 5-0-0 on the first night of back-to-back games Saturday in Nashville, and is 2-2-0 on the second night of play.

Wild vs. Vancouver will be broadcast locally in high definition on FOX Sports North with a start time at 7:00 p.m. The game can be heard on KFAN 100.3 FM or online at Wild.com.

Click here to receive Minnesota Wild broadcast alerts/game day previews each Wild Game day.

Wild.com Prospects Report - March 6 \| The Game Within The Game \| Five Takeaways at NSH
WildTV Suter - March 9 \| Cullen - March 9 \| Backstrom - March 9
PONDcast Wild Weekly \| Prospects PONDcast
Photo Gallery Wild at NSH - March 9

27	SHOTS	32
25	FACEOFFS	29
20	HITS	23
17	PIM	19
0/4	PP	1/3
2	GIVEAWAYS	2
4	TAKEAWAYS	6
7	BLOCKED SHOTS	12