The Minnesota Wild will try to continue their dominance on the road when they meet the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday evening.
The Wild opened their three-game trip with a 4-2 win at the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday, improving to 8-1-2 as the visiting team this season. Their 18 road points lead the NHL.
“We just like to play on the road,” Minnesota defenseman Jonas Brodin said. “When we have a bad game, I feel like we come back and have a good next game. We don’t let it slip to two, three games right now, so that’s a good thing.”
Leading the way at home and on the road for the Wild is left wing Kirill Kaprizov, who scored two more goals against the Blues to increase his road point streak to 10 games (eight goals, 15 assists), which ties Joel Eriksson Ek and Eric Staal for the longest road point streak in team history.
Kaprizov is also riding a six-game point streak overall (six goals, six assists) and leads the NHL with 12 multipoint games this season.
Wild coach John Hynes would like to see his team improve its puck management in tight games. Minnesota is just 2-1-3 in one-goal games this season.
“It’s been a point of emphasis when you’re in tight games, how you need to play,” Hynes said. “Not try to open things up, work for your chances, check for your chances. You’ve got to manage the puck, create chances. There have been some of the times this year where we have, and we’ve learned from those.”
Edmonton is coming off a 5-2 road win against the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday, preventing the Oilers from going winless on their three-game trip (1-1-1).
“It’s always nicer that you get a win (before) you go home because Thursday is going to be a tough game,” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said of the matchup against the Wild.
Edmonton enters with a hot goalie and an even hotter penalty kill.
The Oilers have not allowed a power-play goal in the past five games, killing 12 straight penalties in that span, and goalie Stuart Skinner is 4-1-1 in his past six starts after making 27 saves in the win against Ottawa.
“It always looks like you defended a lot better when your goalie makes huge saves,” Knoblauch said.
The Oilers claimed right wing Kasperi Kapanen off waivers from the Blues on Tuesday and the 28-year-old could get his first opportunity against Minnesota.
Kapanen had just one goal in 10 games with the Blues. He scored a career-high 20 goals with the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2018-19.
“We did our homework, and he’ll fit in in our dressing room, be a good teammate. Sometimes, as guys get older, they mature,” Oilers general manager Stan Bowman said. “We’ll know in the coming weeks, but in the conversation I had with him he is very motivated coming here. He is excited and very determined to make this a success.”
The Oilers could be without left wing Zach Hyman, who did not play the third period against Ottawa because of an undisclosed injury. Hyman scored a career-high 54 goals for Edmonton last season, but has scored only three through 20 games this season.
–Field Level Media