Matchday 33: Florida Panthers at Minnesota Wild

The Florida Panthers (19-11-2) wrap up their grueling five-game road trip and wrap up the season series when they face the Minnesota Wild (20-7-4) tonight at the Xcel Energy Center.

The Panthers got multi-point performances from Carter Verhaeghe, Sam Reinhart, Niko Mikkola and Anton Lundell to end a two-game losing streak with a 6-5 win over the Edmonton Oilers on Monday. Jesper Boqvist’s first career shorthanded goal ended Florida’s two-game scoring drought, and Verhaeghe was the winner with 6:55 left in regulation. Florida will look to avenge a 5-1 loss to Minnesota in the first meeting between the two teams this season.

The Wild enter the fourth of a five-game homestand, alternating wins and losses over their last six contests. On Sunday, Kirill Kaprizov’s excitement wasn’t enough as Minnesota fell 3-2 to the Vergas Golden Knights in goaltender Jesper Wallstedt’s first start of the season. Kaprizov is up to 22 goals and his 47 points puts him second in the league in scoring. With Filip Gustavsson (lower body) still sidelined, Marc-Andre Fleury gets the start.

• WHEN: 9:30 p.m. ET
• WHERE: Xcel Energy Center – St. Paul, MN
• ON THE PIPE: TNT, MAX, FDSNNO
• ON DISC: 560 WQAM (D/B), 1230 The Gambler (PB), Thunder 100.3 (Keys)
• SOCIAL: #TimeToHunt, #mnwild, #FLavsMIN, @LitterBoxCatsLBC Facebook
• Enemy INTEL: Hockey wilderness
• FLA IN SEASON SERIES: Game 2 of 2 (0-1)
• LAST MEETING: MIN 5, @FLA 1 (Recap) – 22/10/2024
• NEXT MEETING: The Stanley Cup Final or the 2025-26 season
• PROJECTED APPETIZERS: Florida: Bobrovsky (14-6-1 .889 / 2.97 1SO) Minnesota: Fleury (6-1-1 .909 / 2.84 0SO)
• PLAYER STATISTICS: Florida / Minnesota

Wednesday in the Atlantic (Position/Panther Playoff chances)

• Philadelphia (14-13-4 32P) at DETROIT (12-14-4 30P) 7:00 PM (TNT)
• TORONTO (10-19-2 40P) at Dallas (11-19-0 38P) 7:30 p.m.

Idle: BOS (37P), TBL (36P) OTT (34P), MON (27P), BUF (26P)