The Dallas Stars (42-27-4) are in a desperate race to get into the Stanley Cup Playoffs and they will hope to grab two valuable points against the Minnesota Wild (45-21-6) on Thursday.
Bookmaker Bovada has the odds at +155 for Dallas to win the most periods in the game and at +140 for Minnesota to do it. The odds are at +250 for the teams to win an equal amount of periods.
※ Current Odds Date & Time: April 14th, 7:30 A.M. (EST)
Dallas already missed the postseason last year after entering the campaign as a Stanley Cup finalist and seeing the season end early again would be very disappointing for the team.
The Stars have made up a lot of ground lately and they will be confident of locking up a postseason berth in the end, but they have to remain focused on every game and need to put as many wins on the board as they can.
Having won nine of their last 13 games, the Stars should feel pretty good about their chances of taking down a tough Minnesota team on Thursday. Especially after having won the last two meetings in the match-up.
Dallas suffered a humiliating 7-2 in the first game of the season against Minnesota but 7-4 and 6-3 victories have followed. They have also won 30 of their last 39 home games against the Wild, which should further lift their confidence.
Can veterans Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin shine again in the match-up? Both have struggled to hit form this season but meetings with Minnesota have gone very well for them. Benn has posted six points in the previous three games in the match-up and Seguin boasts seven points.
Minnesota will look to Kirill Kaprizov to lead the charge again. He’s picked up an incredible nine points against Dallas this season and only a handful of teams have managed to keep him off the scoresheet in 2022.
Kaprizov has already set a new franchise record with 91 points and sitting on 42 goals, the Russian winger needs to light the lamp just one more time to also set Minnesota’s new record for most goals scored in a single season.
With Kaprizov red-hot, the Wild haven’t had any problems moving into the top three in the Central Division, and following a great run of 11 wins in 14 games, they have a playoff spot all but secured. Now it’s time to maintain momentum for the postseason and beating a team that has caused a lot of trouble over the course of the season would certainly feel very sweet for the team.
