The Minnesota Wild will shoot for a fourth straight victory when they welcome the Vancouver Canucks for tonight's Northwest Division battle at Xcel Energy Center.
The Wild are 3-0 so far on a four-game homestand that is scheduled to end tonight. It marks the club's second three-game winning streak in the span of a few weeks, as Minnesota also won three straight from December 23-28.
Minnesota, which is 15-6-1 as the host this year, will begin a three-game road trip tomorrow night in St. Louis.
The Canucks, meanwhile, have lost their last two games on the heels of a four- game winning streak. Vancouver is third in the Northwest Division with 56 points and is two behind Calgary and Colorado for the top spot. The Wild are currently in fourth place and seven points behind the Canucks.
Vancouver is 3-0 against the Wild this year and has taken five straight and eight of the last nine meetings between the clubs. The Canucks have also been victorious in their last four road games in this series and have five wins in their last six trips to St. Paul. However, Vancouver has a poor 9-10-1 overall road record this season.
The Wild were last in action Monday against visiting Pittsburgh and dealt the defending Stanley Cup champions a 4-3 defeat. Guillaume Latendresse scored the go-ahead goal in the third period and collected three assists to lead Minnesota to the close win at XEC.
Latendresse was traded from Montreal to the Wild for forward Benot Pouliot in late November and has been impressive in 21 games with Minnesota, posting 15 points on 10 goals and five assists.
"I got the opportunity (to contribute)," Latendresse said. "I play in good situations, get a lot of minutes."
Martin Havlat, Cal Clutterbuck and Eric Belanger also tallied for the Wild. Havlat has recorded two goals and seven assists during an eight-game point streak for the Wild.
Also, Niklas Backstrom stopped 35 shots to tie Manny Fernandez for most career wins in franchise history (113).
The Canucks had their four-game win streak halted with a shootout loss to visiting Calgary on Saturday. Vancouver then dropped a regulation decision to Nashville on Monday to complete a four-game homestand.
Shea Weber scored a power-play goal with 4:03 remaining in the third period to lift the Predators to a 3-2 win over the Canucks at GM Place.
Alexandre Burrows lit the lamp twice for Vancouver, giving him nine goals over his last five games. Roberto Luongo made 22 saves in defeat as the Canucks failed to pick up a point for the first time in 10 games.
Burrows also claimed after the game that referee Stephane Auger was unfairly targeting him during the game. He said the official was getting back at Burrows for an incident that occurred in a previous game with the Predators on December 8. Burrows was given two-minute minors for diving and interference in the third period and was also whistled for unsportsmanlike conduct and given a 10-minute major for arguing with Auger in the final seconds.
"It was personal," Burrows said of his run-in with Auger. "It started in warm- up. Before the anthem the ref came over to me and said I made him look bad in Nashville on the Smithson hit. He said he was going to get me back tonight. He caught me on a diving call I didn't think was diving and on an interference call I had no idea how he could call that.
"It changes the game. It sucks. I think he should sit out the rest of the year making calls like that, making us look bad. Every two points are so important in this league. We just blew two points because of his officiating tonight."
Burrows was reportedly fined $2,500 by the league for his rant against the referee, while the NHL has yet to find any wrongdoing on Auger's end.
