As good as Minnesota Wild has been on its way this season, it has been the opposite of Hemis. Now back in their own building after a five-match road trip, they will look to improve their record as hosts when Carolina Hurricanes visits on Thursday.
The Wild is 11-12-1 at the Xcel Energy Center this season, compared to an NHL best 20-7-3 on the road. The contrast in several areas of their games based on site is sharp.
At home they only score 2.58 goals per match, ranked them 31 in the league until Tuesday and allow an average of 3.29 goals against, seventh most in the league. They have scored only 22 goals during the third period at home, the 30th league, and have the NHL’s worst penalty at Hemis at 61.1 percent.
Comparatively, as the visitors, their 3.03 goals for per game 12th and 2.47 goals are the second smallest in the league. They are second in the NHL in goal on the third period on the road with 38. Although the penalty death is not dominant on the road, its 77.1 percent success is ranked 20.
The wild return home, though in a little calm. They dropped the last two games on the road trip and were outscored 9-0-6 against the Ottawa senators on Saturday and 3-0 against Boston Bruins on Tuesday.
“Maybe it’s a good change, which comes home that needs to turn things around,” said ahead Marcus Johansson. “We have to make our home a place that is difficult to play, and we haven’t done it yet.”
Marco Rossi has already set a career high with 46 points (18 goals, 28 assists) in 54 games and placed him second in team points behind the injured star Kirill Kaprizov (52 points). Rossi, 23, is three goals shy to match his career best set last season.
The hurricanes arrive in Minnesota who want to break out of their own two-game. After receiving a 4-2 home loss by Los Angeles Kings on Saturday, they were closed 3-0 on the road by the league-leading Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday.
“There are definitely things we have to be better at as a group, but you have to move on, that’s it,” said Carolina coach Rod Brind’amour. “It’s a new day tomorrow and we have to try to find a victory in the next match.”
One of the areas that the hurricanes will look for is on power play. They went 0-for-2 against Winnipeg and are 1-for-25 in the last ten matches.
“I feel like a special team, surely, costs us the game (against Jets),” said ahead Sebastian Aho. “It’s a tough loss because it’s a pretty good team of five-on-five, it’s not too much. But we had our appearance, certainly enough chances to win the hockey game. We couldn’t cash in, and it obviously been The trend from late here.
Carolina was 6-0-1 in her previous seven matches before the two losses. Aho contributed to that success with seven points (four goals, three assists) in five matches during that route. The center has been held by the score during the last two games.
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