Wild Warmup: Minnesota vs. Detroit

The essentials

The opponent

Playing the fourth game of a five-game road trip, the Detroit Red Wings are coming off a 4-3 loss to the Winnipeg Jets at Bell MTS Place on Friday night.
Detroit has lost each of its past two games after starting the trip with a 3-2 overtime win at Madison Square Garden.
The Red Wings won 4-2 in both clubs' season opener at Little Caesars Arena on Oct. 5. Joel Eriksson Ek scored one goal, and goaltender Devan Dubnyk made 27 saves for the Wild. Red Wings defenseman Mike Green had four assists, and forward Anthony Mantha added one goal and two assists.
Mantha leads the Red Wings with 21 goals this season. Dylan Larkin has a team-high 47 points. Henrik Zetterberg has nine goals and 43 points.
Goaltender Jimmy Howard is 18-21-7 with a 2.79 goals-against average and a .912 save percentage.

Connections

• Red Wings assistant coach John Torchetti served as the Wild's head coach for the final 27 games of 2015-16 season after serving as Iowa Wild head coach from 2011-13 and 2014-16.
• Red Wings defenseman Nick Jensen is from St. Paul and played collegiately at St. Cloud State (2010-13).

Playoff push

Minnesota begins the day residing in fourth place in the Central Division and in the Western Conference's top wild card position. The Wild is tied with the Dallas Stars for third in the Central, but Dallas' 37 victories -- one more than Minnesota -- is the current tie breaker.
The Wild stands three points clear of the Anaheim Ducks, the West's second wild card, and four points better than the ninth-place Colorado Avalanche.

Wing men

Minnesota is 5-3-3 in its last 11 games against Detroit, with seven of those games decided by one goal. The Wild has earned a point in 12 of the past 14 meetings at Xcel Energy Center (6-2-6).

Return to St. Paul

Coming off a pair of tough road losses at Arizona and Colorado, the Wild comes back to the venue in which it's been nearly unstoppable of late. Minnesota is tied for first in the NHL with 50 home points thanks to a 22-5-6 record at Xcel Energy Center.
The Wild has notched points in 24 of 26 home games since Nov. 14 and leads the NHL in home points (43) during that span (19-2-5 record).
Related:
- Takeaways from Friday's loss at Colorado - Missed opportunities costly at Arizona