Wild Warmup: Minnesota at Montreal

The essentials

The Wild Warmup is presented by Bryant Heating and Cooling
MONTRÉAL -- With a five-game point streak in tow, the Wild will play its final game of the season against the Eastern Conference on Tuesday night when it plays the Montréal Canadiens at Bell Centre.
It also marks the penultimate road game on the Wild's schedule; five of Minnesota's seven remaining games will take place on home ice, but Tuesday's game in Montréal and another Sunday in Nashville are the two road contests left.
It also marks the second of four consecutive games against teams currently sitting outside of a playoff spot, a fact that meant little on Sunday against the San Jose Sharks, a team the Wild rallied from a goal down in the third period against before winning in overtime, 5-4.
The Wild will also be forced to play in Montreal without another of its lineup regulars as forward Marcus Foligno was left behind the Twin Cities after he was placed on the COVID-19 protocol list ahead of the flight to Canada on Monday.
Foligno joins linemate Jordan Greenway and defensemen Jon Merrill and Matt Dumba -- all out with upper-body injuries -- on the sidelines for the game. Tyson Jost, who sustained a lower-body injury Saturday in St. Louis and did not play against San Jose, is on the trip but is unlikely to play.
Assuming that doesn't change, the game could mark the NHL debut of Mitchell Chaffee, who was recalled from Iowa of the American Hockey League to take Foligno's place on the roster.
Chaffee, in his second professional season, has played in 45 games with Iowa this season, scoring 22 goals and 37 points. He had two goals and 17 points in 28 games in his first season in Iowa last year. This year, he leads Iowa in goals, is fourth in points and is a team-best plus-11.
Over his last 11 games since March 25, Chaffee has nine goals and 13 points and is a plus-6.
A three-year letter winner at the University of Massachusetts, the Grand Rapids, Mich. native captained the Minutemen his junior season and was named a First-Team All-American as a sophomore, when he scored 18 goals and 42 points in 40 games.
The game in Montréal also marks a homecoming of sorts for a handful of Quebec natives on the Wild roster, including forwards Freddy Gaudreau, Nicolas Deslauriers and goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury.
Gaudreau has been especially hot of late and is coming off the second three-point game of his career Sunday against the Sharks, when he assisted on three goals.
His other three-point night came just three nights earlier, when he had two assists and scored his first career overtime winner in a 3-2 win in Dallas on Thursday.
During his four-game point streak, Gaudreau has three goals and five assists, with his eight points during that span tied for fourth-most in the NHL.
One of those with more is his linemate Kevin Fiala, who is coming off his second career four-point night on Sunday. Fiala, named the NHL's Second Star of the Week after tallying 10 points in four games last week, sits one goal shy of 30 for the season and is one of three Wild players who have tallied at least 70 points this season.
The third part of that line, rookie Matt Boldy, also enters on a four-game point streak and has been outstanding since making his NHL debut on Jan. 6 in Boston. Over that span, Boldy is second amongst all rookies in scoring and has 34 points in 40 games, including three multi-point efforts in his past six.
Deslauriers and Fleury, each acquired at the trade deadline, have made impacts as well. Fleury started on Sunday and earned the victory, moving to 5-1-0 in six starts with the club. Should the goaltender rotation that coach Dean Evason insists is not an actual rotation continue, Cam Talbot would be in line to start, however.
Talbot has a 10-0-3 record over his past 13 starts dating back to March 3 and has 29 victories on the season.
The Canadiens have struggled this season, with their 51 points ranking last in the Eastern Conference and just two points more than Arizona for fewest in the NHL.
Injuries have been a big part of that, as has the absence of goaltender Carey Price, who returned to the lineup for the first time last week after he missed the entire season to that point because of personal issues.
Price stopped 17 of 19 shots in his debut, a 3-0 loss to the New York Islanders on Friday night. He helped carry the Habs to the Stanley Cup Final last season, posting a 2.28 goals-against average and a .924 save percentage in 22 postseason games, a run which came following a rather pedestrian regular season.
Forward Nick Suzuki leads Montréal offensively, with 20 goals, 37 assists and 57 points. Former University of Wisconsin star Cole Caufield has had a resurgent second half and is the only other Canadien with at least 30 points. He and Josh Anderson are tied for second on the club with 18 goals.
Minnesota won the only previous meeting between the clubs by an 8-2 margin on Jan. 24 in St. Paul.
Mike Hoffman scored the first goal of that game 1:23 into the contest, but that was the high-water mark for the Habs in that one. Minnesota would score the next five goals, including Connor Dewar's first in the NHL, to take a 5-1 lead into the final period.