Wild looks to extend point streak tonight to a franchise-record-tying 10 games

There is plenty of motivation if you're the Wild (points in 11 of its past 12 games) tonight against the hard-working, defensively-sound Carolina Hurricanes, who are 9-4-3 in their past 16.

A win by the Wild and a Calgary Flames regulation loss against Vancouver, and the Wild would be in a tie with Calgary with 63 points but in one fewer game. That means the Wild would technically inch into the top-8 for the first time since Nov. 24. It could be a tough game though for the Canucks, who played last night at home.

Just hope for no overtime. The Wild's chasing both the Flames and Canucks, who keep flip-flopping between the second wildcard spot and third spot in the Pacific Division (top-3 in each division is a playoff lock).

Also, if the Wild (7-0-2 in its past nine) gets a point tonight, it would match its franchise-record point streak of 10 games (9-0-1, March 8-27, 2007).

Also, even though the Wild last month swept its trip to Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver, that is not something that happens all the time. In fact, the Wild has swept a 3-game western Canadian swing on the same trip only twice in 12 opportunities in history. So a big win tonight would be, well, big heading into the upcoming Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton trip.

Coach Mike Yeo wants to make sure the Wild doesn't look ahead by not respecting the Canes, who have been playing well.

"We just need to look at how they've been playing lately," Yeo said. "We better not get ahead of ourselves here with this game. I know the result of their last game was not positive [against Anaheim], but the game that they played, they deserved to win. You look at the way they've played since the start of the year, it's going to be a tough game. I know that. We have to be ready to play in a low-scoring, tight-checking game because that's the way they're playing the game right now."

--Both Minnesota and Carolina penalty kills have been awesome. The Wild is 22 for 22 in eight games since the All-Star break and the Hurricanes are a riDONKulous 46 for 48 in the past 21 games. Carolina has the NHL's second-best PK, Minnesota the NHL's fourth-best. The Wild is an NHL-best 90 percent on the PK at home.

-- The Wild has allowed 17 goals during its 12-game 9-1-2 streak (league-best 1.4 a game in that stretch) that coincides with the arrival of Devan Dubnyk, who will start his 13^th consecutive game tonight. In the 14 games before that during a 2-8-4 stretch, the Wild allowed 58 goals (4.1 per game).

Dubnyk is 9-1-1 with a 1.48 goals-against average and a .943 save percentage with the Wild.

-- Former Wild goalie Anton Khudobin (6-8-3 with a 2.55 GAA and .909 SV%), taken 206th overall in 2004 by Minnesota, will face his former team for the first time. The Kazakhstani goalie called "Borat" by ex-Wild teammates (I called him the "Dreidel" because of the way he used to spin around his net uncontrollably) was 4-1 in six career games for the Wild. He has a .959 career cave percentage at Xcel Energy Center.

Here's a Jim Souhan column on him once.

I talked to Charlie Coyle for the first time since he had to leave the game temporarily against Florida in the first period after being checked by Alex Petrovic. Coyle thought he sustained a shoulder injury, but it turned out to be a stinger.

"My arm just went on fire and it was numb and couldn't feel it," Coyle said. "I've never had that before. It's almost like when your foot falls asleep, only 10 times worse. I just had to wait to get the strength back. It finally came back. I just knew I couldn't feel it. I thought it was serious and didn't know what to think."

He said the Wild's medical people kept doing tests and immediately thought it was a stinger and not anything like Jason Zucker and Ryan Carter sustained two games before against Vancouver: "My strength came back little by little every minute or so. Freaky. It would have been great timing (with what happened to his teammates)."

Yeo said, "There were a couple people on the bench that just shook their head and said, 'Not right now.' But we were happy to get him back. He did a good job and played well. Injuries are something that we have to continue to deal with with the guys we have out. We just need guys to step up."

Nate Prosser continues to play great and I may do a note on him for tomorrow's paper. He has been physical, gets in guy's grills when they get too close to Dubnyk and has been solid on the penalty kill.

"And with that I think he's found a good rhythm in his game," Yeo said.

Christian Folin played in his first game with Iowa last night and was minus-3 in a 3-1 loss to Texas. He'll play against today for Iowa. Part of me wonders if they may call him up for the road trip because Stu Bickel is the only extra right now.

Yeo said there are no guarantees and the Wild won't start thinking about what it'll need for the road trip until tomorrow prior to its flight to Vancouver.

But Yeo explained that the team sent Folin down because with games every other day the rest of the month, there will be very little practice time. In fact, the Wild had a scheduled day off Wednesday and canceled practice Friday and I bet has at a minimum an optional tomorrow. Yeo said many of the days between games will be used for mental, emotional and physical recovery so the Wild preserves all energy in its tank for the games.

So with practice time on short supply, it was really hurting Folin, who was going to be scratched for a seventh consecutive game last game with the Wild finding consistency with its top-6 defensemen that as of now doesn't include him.