Minnesota Wild vs. Dallas Stars Prediction, Preview, Picks & Odds - 4/14/2022

Time: 8 p.m. ET

Venue: American Airlines Center, Dallas, TX

Where to watch: ESPN

DraftKings: Check back later

BetMGM: Check back later

Caesars: Check back later

Wild: 45-21-6

Stars: 42-27-4

The Dallas Stars will not be catching up to the Minnesota Wild unless something drastic happens in the final nine games. But the Stars are absolutely going to bring it against their division rivals in the Battle of the North Stars, with the teams meeting in Dallas on Thursday night.

Just when it might have been fitting to start throwing dirt on the collective grave that is Dallas, not only has the slippage of the Vegas Golden Knights opened the door for them, but with crucial back-to-back victories, it’s being forced open.

Dallas is coming off a 1-0 win over the struggling Tampa Bay Lightning in Dallas on Tuesday. Roope Hintz scored the lone goal and Scott Wedgewood -- yes, Scott Wedgewood -- was the better goalie of a matchup between himself and Andrei Vasilevskiy.

"Probably the best structured game I've probably been a part of on both sides of the puck," Wedgewood said. "That's what we need, we need that from everybody, we need that all-in effort. Guys are banged up and bleeding at the end of it. But that's a playoff game, and we're going to need that to win. It's impressive to watch."

Coming into Thursday, the Stars have a three-point lead on the Golden Knights for the second wild-card spot, but are also chasing the Nashville Predators for that No. 1 spot to avoid a 1-8 matchup with the Colorado Avalanche.

“That was huge for our group,” said Luke Glendening, who almost had an empty-netter late after creating several short-handed chances for himself in the second period. “I thought to a man everyone really competed tonight. It's fun to see when everybody's pulling on the same rope.”

Dallas is in good spirits right now despite the tough losses last week, but Minnesota is obviously no slouch. They’re getting great goaltending at a perfect time from Marc-Andre Fleury and Cam Talbot. And, of course, the rise of Kirill Kaprizov is putting himself in the Hart conversation even though it’s a likelihood he won’t get in the top five, but he deserves it.

Kaprizov is coming close with a 100-point season on the horizon, which has never been done in the history of the Minnesota Wild.

The Wild are coming off a 5-1 win over the Edmonton Oilers that was made noteworthy by the flipping off from Ryan Hartman to Evander Kane than the two goals each from Hartman and Kevin Fiala. Talbot made 27 saves while Kaprizov had two assists.

"We were happy with the way we played," Minnesota coach Dean Evason said. "… We talked before the game that we shouldn't have to talk about our start. We should just be playing. We should just play like we play. That's what we did and that's how we play. That's when we have success. We're in on pucks, we're dislodging, we're having good sticks and we're getting opportunities because of it, and not only in the offensive zone, but in the defensive zone, too. We exited real well. They had a couple of sustained shifts, but for the most part we did a lot of real good things."

There’s not much to play for here in regards to Minnesota, but finding common ground before the playoffs is going to be key for them and that’s why I expect a win no matter who the goaltender is. I would venture to guess Fleury goes for this one because these are the games that Minnesota brought him to the state of Many Lakes. On the road, pressure situation, Flower gets it done (assuming he starts, of course). Wild win 4-3

Wild are 20-5 off a home win this season.

Wild are 68-32 the past three seasons after playing a home game.

Stars are 1-7 the past three seasons after shutting out their opponent the last game.

Wild:

Kirill Kaprizov -- Ryan Hartman -- Mats Zuccarello

Kevin Fiala -- Frederick Gaudreau -- Tyson Jost

Jordan Greenway -- Joel Eriksson Ek -- Marcus Foligno

Matt Boldy -- Nick Bjugstad -- Nicolas Deslauriers

Jacob Middleton -- Jared Spurgeon

Jonas Brodin -- Dmitry Kulikov

Jordie Benn -- Alex Goligoski

Marc-Andre Fleury

Stars:

Jason Robertson -- Roope Hintz -- Joe Pavelski

Jamie Benn -- Tyler Seguin -- Marian Studenic

Joel Kiviranta -- Vladislav Namestnikov -- Alexander Radulov

Michael Raffl -- Radek Faksa -- Luke Glendening

Ryan Suter -- Miro Heiskanen

Joel Hanley -- John Klingberg

Esa Lindell -- Jani Hakanpaa

Jake Oettinger

Points: Kirill Kaprizov -- 91

Goals: Kirill Kaprizov -- 42

Assists: Mats Zuccarello -- 50

Goalie: Cam Talbot -- 28-12-3, 2.81 GAA, .910 SV%

Points: Joe Pavelski -- 73

Goals: Jason Robertson -- 34

Assists: Joe Pavelski -- 46

Goalie: Jake Oettinger -- 26-13-1, 2.49 GAA, .914 SV%