Wild Warmup: Minnesota vs. Winnipeg

The essentials

ST. PAUL -- The Wild will face its Central Division rivals to the north, the Winnipeg Jets, for the first time this season in a Black Friday matinee at Xcel Energy Center.
It's the first time the teams have played one another since the Jets dispatched the Wild in five games in the First Round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs last spring.
In all, the Jets won seven of the nine meetings last season, including regular season and playoffs. Both of Minnesota's wins came on home ice, however, with the Wild winning 4-1 on Jan. 13 and 6-2 in Game 3 of the postseason on April 15.
The Wild is coming off a 6-4 win over the Ottawa Senators on Wednesday night in St. Paul. Matt Dumba and Eric Staal each scored two goals for Minnesota, Mikael Granlund chipped in with three assists and Jordan Greenway had one goal and one assists.
Winnipeg is in the midst of a four-game road trip that began with a 6-3 win Monday in Vancouver and continued with a 6-3 loss in Calgary on Wednesday. After playing in Minnesota on Friday, the Jets will play at St. Louis on Saturday before heading home.
Winnipeg is led offensively by Plymouth native Blake Wheeler, who has 22 assists among 25 points through 20 games. Mark Scheifele (11 goals, 23 points) and Kyle Connor (10 goals, 20 points) are averaging at least a point per game thus far. Patrik Laine has a team-leading 13 goals, with five of them coming in the past two games.
Goaltender Connor Hellebuyck is 9-5-1 in 16 starts this season, posting a 2.90 goals-against average and a .909 save percentage. He was pulled after allowing three goals in first 11:35 of the game Wednesday against the Flames.
Minnesota enters the day leading Winnipeg by two points for second place in the Central Division standings, though the Jets have two games in hand.

Dum-bomb

Matt Dumba netted two goals Wednesday to match his career high point streak at five games (5-2=7) - last, Feb. 2-11, 2016. He recorded a career-high three-game goal streak (3g) and collected three power-play goals in the point streak. Wednesday's contest marked his fourth multi-goal career game, first this season.
• Per NHL Stats, he became the first NHL defenseman to reach 10 goals this season - a first in Wild franchise history. He also became just the sixth defenseman since 1989-90 to score 10 goals through his team's first 22 games of a season, joining:
• The defenseman has 10 points (7-3=10) in the last 11 games and 15 points (10-5=15) in 22 games this season.
• The 24-year-old leads all NHL defensemen in goals and PPG (4), T_3rd in shots on goal (72) and T-6th in power-play points (8). He also leads the Wild in PPG and shots and ranks T-1st in goals.

Home sweet home

• Minnesota is 7-2-2 in 11 home games this season, ranking T-4th in home points (16) and T-5th in home wins in the NHL.
• Per NHL Stats, dating back to the start of last season, the Wild is 34-8-10 in 52-regular season games at Xcel Energy Center, with only four regulation losses in the building since Dec. 27, 2017 (23-4-8). The eight regulation losses since the beginning of the 2017-18 campaign are the fewest in the League.

Series notes

2017-18:Minnesota went 1-3-0 in four season meetings against Winnipeg…The Wild fell 4-3 at Bell MTS Place (10/20), lost 2-1 at Xcel Energy Center (10/31), fell 7-2 in Winnipeg (11/27) and earned a 4-1 win in Saint Paul (1/13)…LW Marcus Foligno (1-3=4) and LW Jason Zucker (2-2=4) each led Minnesota with four points…C Charlie Coyle tallied three assists…D Matt Dumba (0-2=2), RW Mikael Granlund (1-1=2) and C Mikko Koivu (1-1=2) recorded two points apiece…G Devan Dubnyk went 1-1-0 with a 2.53 GAA and a .921 SV% in two starts…G Alex Stalock went 0-2-0 with a 4.59 GAA and a .809 SV% in two starts…C Mark Scheifele (1-5=6) and RW Blake Wheeler (2-4=6) led the Jets with six points apiece…LW Kyle Connor tallied five points (2-3=5)…D Dustin Byfuglien (0-3=3) and LW Nikolaj Ehlers (2-1=3) had three points each…G Connor Hellebuyck went 3-1-0 with a 2.50 GAA and a .914 SV% in four starts.
WILD LEADERS: C Eric Staal leads Minnesota with 62 points (26-36=62) in 72 matches against Winnipeg…LW Zach Parise owns 35 points (17-18=35) in 42 games…Koivu has 23 points (7-16=23) in 31 contests…Granlund has 15 points (5-10=15) in 20 games…Coyle owns 13 points (2-11=13) in 21 matches.
WILD GOALIES: Dubnyk is 8-8-1 with a 2.75 GAA and a .905 SV% in 17 games (15 starts) vs. the Jets…Stalock is 3-2-0 with a 1.98 GAA, a .914 SV% and two shutouts in seven games (five starts).
JETS LEADERS: Byfuglien leads Winnipeg with 32 points (8-24=32) in 39 games against Minnesota…Wheeler has 26 points (11-15=26) in 30 matchups…C Bryan Little owns 19 points (9-10=19) in 26 contests…C Mathieu Perreault has 18 points (8-10=18) in 20 games…Scheifele owns 16 points (4-12=16) in 21 matches.
JETS GOALIES: Hellebuyck is 5-2-0 with a 2.52 GAA, a .911 SV% and one shutout in 10 games (nine starts) vs. the Wild…G Laurent Brossoit made 15-of-16 saves in relief in his sole career action against Minnesota (1/31/17).

Did you know?

Minnesota's opponents have scored the first goal of the game in 14 of its last 20 contests while the Wild has scored the first goal in eight of its 22 games this season. Minnesota is 8-5-1 when its opponent scores first and is 5-2-1 when scoring first.
The Wild ranks first in the NHL in comeback wins and fourth in win percentage when its opponent scores first (.571).
Minnesota also ranks first in the League with a 5-3-0 record for most wins and win percentage (.625) when trailing after the first period.