Minnesota Wild vs. Winnipeg Jets: Prediction, Preview, Picks & Odds - 3/8/2023

Time: 7:30 p.m. ET

Venue: Canada Life Centre, Winnipeg MB

Where to watch: SN, BSN, BSWI

DraftKings: Check back later for odds

BetMGM: Check back later for odds

Caesars: Check back later for odds

Wild: 36-21-7

Jets: 36-25-3

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The Minnesota Wild will be playing the Winnipeg Jets on Wednesday, March 8 in Winnipeg.

The Wild are coming off a 1-0 shootout loss to the Calgary Flames at Xcel Energy Center on Tuesday, so they’re playing a second game of a back-to-back]. The Minnesota Wild currently rank 2nd in the Central Division.

Goaltender Filip Gustavsson made 26 saves for a regulation shutout and to help the Wild extend their point streak to 10 games. But Minnesota failed to capitalize against a Flames team that was playing on a back-to-back. Jacob Markstrom countered the Minnesota goalie with a 40-save shutout of his own.

The Minnesota Wild have won eight of their last 10 games as of March 6.

The Winnipeg Jets lost against the San Jose Sharks on Monday, March 6 at Canada Life Centre in Winnipeg with a score of 3-2 in overtime. The Winnipeg Jets currently rank 3rd in the Central Division.

Nino Niederreiter and Nate Schmidt scored for the Jets (36-25-3), who went 0-for-6 on the power play and have lost eight of their past 10 games (2-6-2). David Rittich made 21 saves.

The Jets loss kept Winnipeg three points behind the Minnesota Wild for second place in the Central Division, and one ahead of the Colorado Avalanche, who hold the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference.

"[The power play] had some good looks, just not enough," Jets coach Rick Bowness said. "You have that many opportunities, you'd like to see more, a couple chances per power play. If [Reimer] is making the saves, he's making the saves. Some of those power plays, we didn't create anything. The ones we did create chances on, he made the saves."

Steven Lorentz gave San Jose a 1-0 lead at 14:13 of the first period, knocking in a loose puck at the side of the net. Niederreiter tied it 1-1 at 6:05 of the second period when he spun and fired a wrist shot from the edge of the left face-off circle.

It was Niederreiter's first goal since being acquired in a trade from the Nashville Predators on Feb. 25, and the 200th of his NHL career.

"It definitely felt great, but right now, obviously, we lost, so that's above everything else," Niederreiter said. "It's not very important right now. It's great to get on the board, but it's tough that we lost.

"[I] hope I'm not going to stop here; I'm trying to get more and more. [Two hundred is] definitely a great mark and I'm definitely proud of it, but hopefully there's more to come."

Schmidt gave Winnipeg a 2-1 lead at 14:53 of the third, one-timing Nikolaj Ehlers' feed from behind the net shortly after a power play expired, but Tomas Hertl tied it 2-2 when Karlsson's attempted shot hit Blake Wheeler's stick and found Hertl in the left circle.

"I thought [Rittich] did a really good job for us all night," Schmidt said. "For that to be one that tied it up you feel for him, because I thought the guys did a good job on the ice. A pretty good unit they send out at the end. Tough way after getting that bounce and climbing our way back into the game."

Logan Couture scored for San Jose at 1:21 of overtime, making the final score 3-2.

The Winnipeg Jets have won two of their last 10 games.

Prediction

The Wild will go with Marc-Andre Fleury against a Winnipeg team that is struggling heavily. But with Minnesota on travel, Fleury will need to be at his absolute best to beat Connor Hellebuyck. Jets 3, Wild 2

Wild:

Kirill Kaprizov -- Ryan Hartman -- Mats Zuccarello

Marcus Johansson -- Joel Eriksson Ek -- Matt Boldy

Marcus Foligno -- Frederick Gaudreau -- Oskar Sundqvist

Mason Shaw -- Connor Dewar -- Ryan Reaves

Jake Middleton -- Jared Spurgeon

Alex Goligoski -- Matt Dumba

Jon Merrill -- John Klingberg

Marc-Andre Fleury

Jets:

Kyle Connor -- Mark Scheifele -- Nino Niederreiter

Nikolaj Ehlers -- Pierre-Luc Dubois -- Blake Wheeler

Morgan Barron -- Adam Lowry -- Vladislav Namestnikov

Saku Maenalanen -- Kevin Stenlund -- Mason Appleton

Josh Morrissey -- Neal Pionk

Brenden Dillon -- Dylan DeMelo

Dylan Samberg -- Nate Schmidt

Connor Hellebuyck