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ST. PAUL, Minn. -- The Minnesota Wild hosts the defending Stanley Cup champions tonight, doing battle with the Florida Panthers as the Wild celebrates Star Wars Night. Want to embrace your Dark Side? Check out the Star Wars Night Ticket Pack, featuring a Darth Faber hockey shirt.

Info for Tonight's Game:

Wild Record: 20-7-4, 44 points, 2nd in Central Division

Panthers Record: 19-11-2, 40 points, T-2nd in Atlantic Division

2024-25 Series Record: 1-0-0

All-Time Wild Record: 21-9-4 (11-2-3 at Xcel Energy Center)

Stats Comparison

Team Stats
FLA
MIN
Power Play
26.0%
19.0%
Penalty Kill
80.9%
70.7%
Faceoff
47.8%
48.5%
Goals For / Games Played
3.50
3.13
Goals Against / Games Played
3.25
2.52

This Season on Wild vs. Panthers

Minnesota won the season-opening game, 5-1, in Florida (10/22).

D Jake Middleton led the Wild with three points (0-3=3). LW Matt Boldy (1-1=2), C Joel Eriksson Ek (1-1=2), LW Kirill Kaprizov (0-2=2) and RW Mats Zuccarello (1-1=2) each notched two-point games. G Filip Gustavsson saved 24-of-25 shots faced to earn the win for Minnesota.

C Sam Bennett (1-0=1) scored Florida’s lone goal. G Sergei Bobrovsky started the game for the Panthers and stopped 11-of-16 shots faced. G Spencer Knight entered in the third period and made six saves.

Wild Leaders Against Panthers

  • Zuccarello leads Minnesota with 33 points (16-17=33) in 30 career matches against Florida
  • D Zach Bogosian owns 21 points (6- 15=21) in 46 games vs. Florida
  • LW Marcus Johansson has 16 points (6- 10=16) in 33 games
  • Kaprizov owns 14 points (5-9=14) in seven games

Panthers Leaders Against Wild

  • C Aleksander Barkov leads Florida with 17 points (4- 13=17) in 18 career matches against Minnesota
  • RW Matthew Tkachuk has 11 points (4-7=11) in 20 games vs. the Wild
  • D Aaron Ekblad owns 10 points (3-7=10) in 17 games
  • C Sam Reinhart (4-5=9 in 16 games) and D Nate Schmidt (3-6=9 in 22 games) each have nine points

To view recent transactions, visit wild.com/transactions.

Connections

  • Minnesota Assistant Coach Jack Capuano worked as Associate Coach with Florida for two seasons (2017-19)
  • Panthers D Dmitry Kulikov collected 24 points (7-17=24) in 80 games with Minnesota in 2020-21
  • Schmidt is from St. Cloud and played three seasons at the University of Minnesota (2010-13)

Fast Facts

  • Minnesota has a earned a point in 14 of the 16 all-time meetings in St. Paul (11-2-3)
  • The Wild’s 21 all-time wins against the Panthers are its fifth-most against an Eastern Conference opponent

For more information on today's matchup, check out the game notes below.