Montreal rolled into Minnesota after a successful three-game week with a pair of wins over the Senators, and a nail-biting win in Chicago over the Blackhawks. Noah Juulsen returned to the lineup after suffering a facial injury a few weeks ago, while in net Antti Niemi got the nod after Carey Price started most of the past few contests.
As for the Minnesota Wild, they were still missing captain Mikko Koivu,who is sidelined with an injury suffered in a knee-on-knee hit against Calgary. After a rough outing in his previous contest, Devan Dubnyk started for Bruce Boudreau in net.