Tonight at 7:30 p.m. ET, the Toronto Maple Leafs (11-6-0, 22 points) and the Minnesota Wild (10-4-4, 24 points) go head-to-head live from the Xcel Energy Center in Minnesota in the second and final meeting against each other this season. The game can be live streamed here. Toronto fans can hear all the action by tuning into Sportsnet 590 while Minnesota fans can do the same on 830 WCCO Radio
Toronto enters play having lost five of its last nine while Minnesota looks for its fourth straight home win after winning four of its last five games. In the first meeting between these two teams, the Maple Leafs defeated the Wild at Air Canada Centre in Toronto 4-1.
The Maple Leafs enter their fourth game in 13 days this month having averaged just a goal a game in the previous three. The Leafs are still without Dave Bolland (6-4-10), who visited their practice Monday, after he suffered a severed tendon on Nov. 2 against the Vancouver Canucks.
"It's just a freak thing, it's hockey," Bolland told the Toronto Sun while visiting the team's practice facility Monday. "You go into the corners and you are wearing sharp blades. It was just a little opening in my foot that got caught.
The Wild enter play hoping to continue their great success at home recently on the back of Zach Parise, who has a team-high 15 points off of eight goals and seven assists while Jason Pominville has 10 points in his last seven games to give him 11 tallies and three assists for 14 points and Mikael Granlund and Mikko Koivu have each lit the lamp twice and added 10 assists for 12 points.
The Leafs, meanwhile, have been paced by Phil Kessel, who leads the team in points (19) and goals (10) while adding nine assists. Along with Kessel, James van Riemsdyk (seven goals, six assists) and Nazem Kadri (five goals, eight assists) each have 13 points while Joffrey Lupul has eight goals and four assists for 12 points.
The goaltending matchup tonight pits Toronto's Jonathan Bernier, who is 7-4-0 with a 2.17 goals-against average with a .936 saver percentage, against Minnesota's Niklas Backstrom (1-1-2, 3.42 GAA, .871 save percentage) since Josh Harding is under the weather.
The Leafs will look to pick up a win and rediscover their scoring touch while the Wild hope to continue winning at home when these teams hit the ice at Xcel Energy Center tonight in Minnesota.
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