Game 20

Buffalo Sabres (11-6-2) vs Minnesota Wild (12-5-2)

Puck Drop: 6:00 PM | XCEL Energy Center | Saint Paul, MN

TV: MSG-B

Radio: WGR 550

SB Nation Wild Blog: Hockey Wilderness

Know Your Opponent

Minnesota Wild

Record: (12-5-2) | 26 PTS

Last 10: 7-3-0

Division Ranking: 2nd in the Central Division

Conference Ranking: 2nd in the Western Conference

PP: 14th (20.6%)

PK: 5th (85.5%)

What to Watch

1. Mittelstadt Homecoming

Minnesota native, Casey Mittelstadt will play in his home state for the first time as a professional tonight. Perhaps he’ll have a bit of extra fire in his game playing in front of family and friends? His home town of Eden Prairie is a short 30 minute drive from Saint Paul.

2. Ullmark Likely in Net?

After two consecutive games where Carter Hutton stood on his head, leading the Sabres to victory, Linus Ullmark will likely get the nod in net tonight. In five starts this season, Ullmark has posted a .916 save-percentage and one shutout. He’ll look to rebound from a rough outing against the Montreal Canadiens last week where he allowed five tallies on 37 shots.

3. Gasp! Is That a Starting Goalie?

After squaring off with backup netminders twice in a row against Tampa Bay and Winnipeg respectively, the Sabres will have to try and solve Devan Dubnyk tonight. The 32-year-old currently holds a .926 save percentage and a 9-4-0-2 record this season.

Buffalo Sabres

Forwards

Jeff Skinner - Jack Eichel - Sam Reinhart

Conor Sheary - Casey Mittelstadt - Kyle Okposo

Vladimir Sobotka - Patrik Berglund - Jason Pominville

Zemgus Girgensons - Johan Larsson - Tage Thompson

Defense

Jake McCabe - Rasmus Ristolainen

Marco Scandella - Zach Bogosian

Nathan Beaulieu - Rasmus Dahlin

Starting Goaltender: Linus Ullmark (Projected)

Minnesota Wild

Forwards

Jason Zucker - Eric Staal - Mikael Granlund

Zach Parise - Mikko Koivu - Nino Niederreiter

Marcus Foligno - Charlie Coyle - Jordan Greenway

Matt Hendricks - Eric Fehr - J.T. Brown

Defense

Ryan Suter - Matt Dumba

Jonas Brodin - Jared Spurgeon

Nick Seeler - Greg Pateryn

Starting Goaltender: Devan Dubnyk