The Wild Warmup is presented by Bryant Heating and Cooling
ST. PAUL -- The Wild will return home following a four-game road trip on Tuesday night when it faces the Carolina Hurricanes at Xcel Energy Center.
In doing so, it will look to avoid just a small piece of history.
Since taking over as Minnesota's head coach 96 games ago, the Dean Evason-led Wild have yet to lose three consecutive games.
That streak will be on the line Tuesday night after an end to the road trip that saw Minnesota lose a pair of tight games to Pacific Division teams.
After securing victories in Edmonton and San Jose to begin the trip, the Wild lost both ends of a weekend back-to-back, dropping a 2-1 match in Los Angeles and a 6-4 contest in Las Vegas, where the Golden Knights scored into an empty net with under 30 seconds left.
Now it will look to avoid a third consecutive loss for the first time since Jan. 9-14, 2020.
"You can't be satisfied, even if you win eight in a row or lose one, you've gotta come back at it," said Wild forward Mats Zuccarello. "I think [Sunday], wasn't our best. They're a fast team and we gave them too many odd-man rushes, losing pucks in bad areas and giving them those chances.
"But we battle hard, as a team. Everyone out there gives everything, they're blocking shots, backchecking. As long as we have that, we're in a good spot."
Minnesota is weathering injuries on the back end, as Jonas Brodin has missed the past two games with an upper-body injury. Brodin's absence came on the heels of one by Jared Spurgeon, who returned Thursday night in San Jose, a game that was missed by Matt Dumba because of non-COVID illness.
The hope is that Brodin won't be out long, but with the team flying home from Las Vegas on Monday, his status for Tuesday's game won't be known until morning skate, or potentially closer to game time.
Brodin has three goals and 14 points this season, but his strong defensive play is sorely missed when he's not in the lineup. Brodin's plus-8 is second-best among Wild defensemen, trailing only Alex Goligoski (plus-13).
Minnesota is healthy up front following the return of Freddy Gaudreau to the lineup on Sunday. Gaudreau missed six games on the COVID-19 protocol list.
Carolina's Sebatian Aho, the NHL's reigning Second Star of the Week, will not play in the game Tuesday after he and rookie Seth Jarvis were left behind in Vancouver because of a positive COVID-19 test on Monday. That's a gigantic loss for the Canes, as Aho has five goals and seven points in his past three games and 12 points in his past five. Aho did not play against the Canucks on Sunday.
The Hurricanes were also without defensemen Tony DeAngelo and Brett Pesce, who were on the COVID-19 protocol list earlier this month and missed the final three-game Canadian portion of their road trip because of quarantine rules.
Both DeAngelo and Pesce have been skating in Raleigh and are expected to re-join the lineup now that they have come back over the border.
In his first season with Carolina, DeAngelo has been a revelation, tallying four goals and 19 points in 20 games.
The game on Tuesday marks the final one of a five-game road trip for the Hurricanes, which began a week ago in Winnipeg. The Canes won the first three games of the trip before losing 2-1 on Sunday in Vancouver, a loss that snapped an overall four-game winning streak.
