ST. PAUL, Minn. — Filip Gustavsson is expected back for the Minnesota Wild against the Vegas Golden Knights for Game 6 of the Western Conference First Round at Xcel Energy Center on Thursday (7:30 p.m. ET; FDSNNO, SCRIPPS, ESPN, TVAS2, SN360).
Wild coach John Hynes said Thursday he had no update on Minnesota’s No. 1 goalie, but had said Wednesday that the expectation was that Gustavsson would play.
Gustavsson did not take part in a highly optional morning skate, while backup Marc-Andre Fleury did.
The Wild are facing a win-or-go home situation in Game 6, trailing the best-of-7 series 3-2 after a 3-2 overtime loss in Game 5 at T-Mobile Arena.
Gustavsson left Game 5 before the start of the third period because of an illness. He stopped 23 of 25 shots and the Wild trailed 2-1. Fleury, making his first appearance of the postseason, stopped the first six shots he faced before allowing a goal to Brett Howden at 4:05 of overtime.
Teams with a 3-2 lead in a best-of-7 series in the Stanley Cup Playoffs win 79.2 percent of the time (357-94).
Vegas is 6-1 in the seven series it has led 3-2. The Wild are 3-6 in series in which they trailed 3-2.
There appear to be no other lineup changes for the Wild.
Defenseman Jon Merrill inserted into the lineup for Game 5 is expected to play again. He played 12:47 and was a minus-1 in place of rookie Zeev Buium, who played in the first four games. Marcus Johansson, who missed Game 4 because of an undisclosed injury, returned in Game 5 and had two shots on goal in 14:40. He is expected to play in Game 6.
Here is a breakdown of Game 6:
Golden Knights: Top-line forward Pavel Dorofeyev won’t play and is considered day to day after leaving Game 5 during the third period because of an undisclosed injury. He was replaced on the top line by Mark Stone, and is expected to start in that spot in Game 6. Victor Olofsson will enter the lineup after being scratched the previous two games. He’ll skate on the second line at 5-on-5 and take Dorofeyev’s spot on the top power-play unit. Dorofeyev, who led the Golden Knights with 35 goals during the regular season, has two points (one goal, one assist) in five games during the series. Olofsson does not have a point in three playoff games.
Wild: Minnesota insists it is prepared for the win-or-go-home stakes of this elimination game. The Wild point to the fact they won Game 2 on the road to even the series and that they have lost each of the past two games in overtime. And they also played several must-win games down the stretch just to get into the playoffs. In their final two regular-season games, they defeated the Vancouver Canucks and the Anaheim Ducks, each in overtime, just to clinch their postseason spot. “I feel like we have prepared for it the entire year,” defenseman Jared Spurgeon said Tuesday. “Obviously going through injuries as well with key guys out of the lineup, but I also think just going down the stretch with big games for us, we sort of had to get our game in order. But we are looking forward to tonight. Coming home in front of our home fans is awesome.”
Number to know: 27:45. Nobody in this series has played more than Brock Faber, and the Wild defenseman is third in average ice time among all players. Defenseman Noah Hanifin, at 23:29, is the most-used skater for the Golden Knights. Faber’s workload could get even bigger in an elimination game.
What to look for: Who scores first? The team that has scored first has won each game. The Wild will want to strike first to get their fans into it and put the Golden Knights on their heels, but Vegas knows if it can get the first goal the pressure will be turned up on the home side.
