The Wild prepared for a five-game homestand that begins Friday with a long practice on Thursday, staying on the ice for an hour and 20 minutes. Some players lingered longer than that as they look to inject some of their road mojo into a series of critical games at Xcel Energy Center.

The homestand starts with a back-to-back set, Friday against Calgary and Saturday against Los Angeles--two other Western Conference teams that are scrapping for playoff spots. The Wild then has a long four-day break before home games against the Rangers next Thursday; Detroit on Saturday, April 4; and Winnipeg on Monday, April 6.

Though coaches love to talk about how you have to win on the road this time of year, you also can't afford to let any games slip away at home. The Wild has won 10 in a row on the road but is just 4-4 in its past eight at Xcel Energy Center.

"You always want to protect home ice and be a good home team," forward Zach Parise said. "I think for the most part, we've done that. We haven't played as well as we'd like to at home as of late. We need to put together some good ones.

"We don't play different at home. We've just played good teams at home as of late, and we haven't played well in some games, which is going to happen. We've had games where we haven't played great and we've escaped with a win, and we haven't done that at home."

Coach Mike Yeo said he has been trying to resist the temptation to obsess over the scoreboard and the standings. He praised his team for doing a good job of concentrating on itself, and he said it will be important to keep a tight focus during the homestand.

"We're trying not to look at the teams below us or the teams ahead of us," Yeo said. We're trying to look at the team we're playing tomorrow night. That's got to be our focus.

"Our last game versus St. Louis at home (a 6-3 victory last Saturday) is a game we should feel good about. At the same time, we've got five games at home. We have to make sure we get back to being a really tough team to play against in our building. That's not just about going out and making nicer plays; that's part of it, but that stuff comes from the little things in your game and playing with speed, playing physical, playing the type of game that brings momentum to your team. That's what we've got to make sure we're focused on."

Yeo put Thomas Vanek back on the Wild's first power-play unit in Thursday's practice, teaming him with Parise, Mikko Koivu, Ryan Suter and Jason Pominville. The second unit featured Nino Niederreiter, Mikael Granlund, Chris Stewart, Jared Spurgeon and Matt Dumba. Yeo didn't rule out making some in-game adjustments to those groups, but he thought Vanek played his way back onto the top unit.

"He's been performing," Yeo said of Vanek, who saw an eight-game point streak end in Tuesday's victory over the New York Islanders. "He's playing really good. Those guys have had success. We tried switching things up, and we didn't create a whole lot off of that. So we'll go back to this."

Yeo said the only potential lineup change Friday could be the return of forward Ryan Carter, who has missed 22 games because of a shoulder injury. That decision won't be made until Friday morning. Of the Wild's other injured players, Yeo said Matt Cooke (sports hernia) continues to skate, Nate Prosser (knee) is "coming along well" and Jason Zucker (broken collarbone) is skating but "still a ways away."

RACHEL BLOUNT