Faceoff Factor

7:00 at Mellon Arena
TV: Versus
Radio: WXDX Radio, FM 105.9
Probable Goalies: Sabourin (Pit), Backstrom (Min)

It’s six consecutive wins and counting as the Pittsburgh Penguins prepare to host the Minnesota Wild tonight on the Versus Network.

While the Wild may not be the most offensively potent team in the NHL — actually, they’re far from it — their defense is something to be reckoned with.  Their 30 goals-against rank first in the NHL by an 11-goal margin.  And don’t expect the power play to provide much of a spark, as the Wild have a league-best 93.3 penalty kill percentage.

In other words, goals will be difficult to come by tonight for the offensively talented Penguins.

As mentioned above, the Wild aren’t all that strong offensively, scoring the fourth fewest goals in the league, though their power play, clicking at 23.9 percent, ranks third in the NHL.

Minnesota, widely known as a trapping team, thrives on making teams pay for their mistakes, so, without a doubt, the Penguins should look to play tonight’s game at even strength, with a focus on quality positional hockey and safe, percentage plays, not high-risk, ticky-tacky passing.

In goal for the Penguins will be Dany Sabourin, who will make his second appearance in three games and third start of the season.  Marc-Andre Fleury is expected to be healthy enough to serve as the backup, despite suffering from an undisclosed injury.

Also, of note, Evgeni Malkin is riding a 13-game assist streak, which is just three shy of the franchise record set by Jaromir Jagr.

Projected lines:

Talbot-Crosby-Satan
Fedotenko-Malkin-Sykora
Kennedy-Staal-Cooke
Dupuis-Zigomanis-Godard

Orpik-Letang
Scuderi-Gill
Boucher-Goligoski

Sabourin