The Minnesota Wild and Vegas Golden Knights will square off for the first time this season when they meet on Monday, March 1, 2021. You can find the best odds for this North Division clash at the T-Mobile Arena at PointsBet Sportsbook, along with all the latest team news and stats.
The Golden Knights opened as a -148 moneyline favorite on FanDuel, but have seen the odds steadily increase to -156 while Minnesota now comes in at +125.
Minnesota will be without three of their centers, including Marcus Johansson, who was lost to an upper-body injury on Saturday. Goalie Robin Lehner has been out since February 20 for Vegas.
Wild Look for Lucky No. 7
The Minnesota Wild (12-6-0) will be looking for their seventh straight victory on Monday. They defeated the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday, 4-3, as Matt Dumba scored the game-winning goal with 0.3 seconds left in overtime. That was the sixth straight win for the team. Rookie netminder Kaapo Kahkonen stopped 25 of 28 shots.
Minnesota is averaging 3.17 goals per game (10th in the NHL), and have been outstanding defensively, allowing 2.44 goals per contest (fifth in the NHL). The power play has been abysmal for Minnesota, last in the NHL at 7.9%. Kirill Kaprizov leads the team in scoring with 17 points.
Cam Talbot gets the start for Minnesota. He returned after a one-week layoff to defeat Los Angeles on Friday. Talbot now has a 2.19 GAA and a .926 save percentage in seven games. He has been helped by an outstanding penalty-killing unit for the Wild, ranked eighth that 84.9%.
Washington beat the Pens to snap a four-game skid
The Vegas Golden Knights (12-4-1) defeated Anaheim in overtime on Saturday, 3-2. Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 28 of 30 shots and William Karlsson scored the game-winner 3:23 into overtime. It was the second goal of the game for Karlsson.
Vegas is averaging 3.00 goals per game (14th in the NHL). They are second in goals allowed at 2.06. The power play for the Golden Knights is connecting on 18.2% of their opportunities, 19th in the league. With the two goals, Karlsson is now second on the team in points with 14. Mark Stone leads the team with 17 points.
Fleury will go for Vegas. He has started 12 games with an impressive 1.59 GAA and a .941 save percentage. The Golden Knights are fourth in the NHL and penalty killing it 87.5%.
Trends:
Minnesota:
- 6-0 in their last six games.
- 4-0 in their last four games on the road.
Vegas:
- 2-6 in their last eight games against Minnesota.
You simply cannot argue with a team that is as red-hot as Minnesota is. Oddsmakers believe Vegas is going to snap that six-game winning streak, but the goaltending for the Wild has simply been too good. During this winning streak, they have allowed 10 total goals and snapped the winning streak of the equally hot Los Angeles Kings this past weekend.
Look for a great goaltending battle. Fleury and Talbot both have outstanding numbers, but Minnesota is going to find a way.
Pick: Take Minnesota Wild at +125
The Total:
The total is set at 5.5 and I think oddsmakers could have gone as low as 4.5 and still had a good chance at the under winning the day. The combination of Fleury and Talbot should create for quite a showdown.
The difference here is that Minnesota is simply not getting great goaltending but are scoring lots of goals as well. They have scored 27 goals during the six-game winning streak, which includes six against Colorado netminder Philipp Grubauer. They will not get that many against Fleury, so I take the under.
Pick: Go under 5.5 goals at -105