WILD GAMEDAY
7 p.m. at Edmonton, BSN, 100.3-FM
Canada trip starts with visit to surging Oilers
Wild update: Minnesota (30-13-3, 63 points) faces the Oilers to start a four-game, seven-day trip back-and-forth across Canada. The Wild is coming off back-to-back losses, 6-3 at Winnipeg on Wednesday and 6-2 to Florida on Friday. Minnesota is 14-9-2 on the road with consecutive losses at Winnipeg. The Wild defeated the Oilers 4-1 in Edmonton on Dec. 7 as C Joel Eriksson Ek had a goal and an assist and RW Mats Zuccarello had two assists. … LW Kirill Kaprizov scored his 50th career goal in his 100th game on Friday. Only Teemu Selanne (84), Eric Lindros (67), Alex Ovechkin (64), Pavel Bure (64) and Austin Matthews (52) have more goals in their first 100 games. … D Matt Dumba (lower body) is not expected to make the trip and is out indefinitely. The Wild recalled D Calen Addison from Iowa of the AHL and reassigned C Victor Rask and D Dakota Mermis to Iowa. C Nick Bjugstad (finger) has been cleared to return and will be on the trip.
Oilers update: Edmonton (28-18-3, 59 points) will be playing the second game of a back-to-back after defeating the Jets 4-2 in Winnipeg on Saturday. The Oilers have won five in a row, outscoring opponents 22-8. C Connor McDavid had a goal and two assists against the Jets and leads the NHL in scoring with 71 points on 26 goals and 45 assists. C Leon Draisaitl leads the NHL with 35 goals and ranks second with 69 points. McDavid has seven goals and 10 assists in 15 career games vs. Minnesota. … G Mikko Koskinen, who made 22 saves Saturday, is 17-8-2 with a 3.11 goals-against average and .901 save percentage in 27 games this season. Veteran Mike Smith (5-4-1, 3.31, .904) has played 11 games. … RW Zack Kassian (jaw), D Duncan Keith (concussion), RW Jesse Puljujarvi (lower body) and D Kris Russell (undisclosed) are on injured reserve.
Randy Johnson