Tonight at 8:00 p.m. ET, the Chicago Blackhawks (32-8-12, 76 points) and Minnesota Wild (27-20-5, 59 points) hit the ice at the Xcel Energy Center in Minnesota for the fourth of five meetings against each other this season. The game can be live streamed here. Chicago fans can hear all of the action on 720 WGN while Minnesota fans can do the same on KFAN 100.3.
The Blackhawks are coming off of a loss but have won two of their last three games while Minnesota has also won two out of their last three while suffering a setback in its last game The Wild have taken two out of three from the Blackhawks, and won the last meeting 4-3 in Minnesota on Dec. 5.
The Blackhawks are coming off of a 5-4 loss to their old rival Detroit Red Wings Wednesday night in a shootout.
"We weren't very good tonight," coach Joel Quenneville said via NHL.com. "They worked hard. They were the harder-working team and getting ourselves a point out of there, with a chance for two in the shootout, certainly we'll take a point because we didn't play well enough or hard enough."
The Wild may receive good news on the injury front soon as Zach Parise practiced Wednesday and may be ready to return for the first time since missing 14 games with a foot injury.
"I think we have to be fair with our expectations just like any player that comes back," coach Mike Yeo said per NHL.com. "Obviously we're going to expect great things from him but we have to recognize that he's been off for a long time. It takes some time to get the timing back. ... I just think we have to give him a fair chance to get into the game and get comfortable."
The Wild are without leading scorer Mikko Koivu (8-27-35) following ankle surgery. Without Koivu, Jason Pominville leads the team with 33 points off of 19 goals and 14 assists while Ryan Suter has six markers and 25 helpers for 31 points.
Patrick Kane paces the Blackhawks with 58 points off of 23 tallies and 35 helpers while Patrick Sharp has lit the lamp 26 times and added 25 helpers for 51 points and Jonathan Toews has found the back of the net 17 times and added 32 assists for 49 points.
Corey Crawford is likely to start between the pipes for Chicago and is 19-7-8 with a 2.49 goals-against average and a .910 save percentage while injuries to Minnesota's top two goaltenders could lead to third string Darcy Kuemper getting the nod and he is 4-3-0 with a 2.39 GAA and a .916 save percentage.
The Blackhawks and Wild faceoff live from the Xcel Energy Center tonight in Minnesota.
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