Wild Warmup: Minnesota at Ottawa

The Essentials

The Opponent

The Ottawa Senators will try and run their winning streak to three games on Sunday. Ottawa defeated the Los Angeles Kings 2-1 on Friday night at the Canadian Tire Centre and is in the midst of a stretch where it plays four of five games on home ice. The Senators haven't scored more than two goals in any of their past eight games and hasn't reached three goals since a 3-0 win over Vancouver on Oct. 25. The Sens have allowed more than two goals just twice, however, during that stretch.

Duby Duby Doo

Wild goaltender Devan Dubnyk likely won't start on Sunday, ceding the crease to Darcy Kuemper on the second half of back-to-back games. But Dubnyk has earned his day of rest. During the seven-game run since Kuemper last played, Dubnyk allowed eight goals total, earned three shutouts and compiled a goals-against average of just 1.15. On the season, Dubnyk has a sparkling 1.34 goals against and has stopped almost 96 percent of shots faced.

At the Rink

The Wild arrived in the Canadian capital city just after midnight on Sunday morning and, with the earlier puck drop, did not skate at the Canadian Tire Centre.
Minnesota could go with a similar lineup as the game Saturday night, perhaps with a small tweak or two. Coach Bruce Boudreau said earlier this week that he expected to start Kuemper once on the back-to-back.
Here are the projected lineups:
WILD
Nino Niederreiter - Eric Staal - Charlie Coyle
Mikael Granlund - Mikko Koivu - Jason Pominville
Jason Zucker - Erik Haula - Christoph Bertschy
Joel Erikkson Ek - Tyler Graovac - Chris Stewart
Ryan Suter - Matt Dumba
Mike Reilly - Jared Spurgeon
Jonas Brodin - Christian Folin
Darcy Kuemper
Devan Dubnyk
SENATORS
Ryan Dzingel - Kyle Turris - Tom Pyatt
Mike Hoffman - Derick Brassard - Bobby Ryan
Zack Smith - Jean-Gabriel Pageau - Mark Stone
Matt Puempel - Chris Kelly - Chris Neil
Marc Methot - Erik Karlsson
Dion Phaneuf - Cody Cici
Mark Borowiecki - Fredrik Claesson
Craig Anderson
Mike Condon