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Panthers-Wild Preview

Mar 8, 2010 - 6:29 PM By MATT BECKER STATS Senior Writer

Florida (26-28-10) at Minnesota (31-28-5), 8:00 p.m. EDT

Coming off another tough loss, the Minnesota Wild are slipping further out of playoff contention.

A home game against a Florida Panthers team mired in its worst road losing streak in more than four years could help them get back on track.

The Wild, trying to avoid losing their third in a row, look to win their eighth straight game over the Panthers when the teams meet Tuesday night.

Desperately in need of points to avoid missing the playoffs for a third straight season, Minnesota (31-28-5) came out of the Olympic break with an impressive 4-0 win at Calgary on Wednesday.

The Wild were unable to carry any momentum from that victory, however, losing to NHL-worst Edmonton 2-1 in a shootout on Friday and falling to the Flames 5-2 on Sunday. Guillaume Latendresse, who has seven goals in nine games, accounted for all three goals in those defeats for Minnesota, which has dropped to 13th place in the Western Conference, seven points back of eighth-place Detroit.

"Definitely making it harder," Wild coach Todd Richards said. "But I don't doubt this team, the players have shown over and over that dealing with adversity or bleak circumstances, they have been able to come through. I'm definitely not counting them out."

Richards might feel differently if his team struggles this week, though.

After this game, the Wild hit the road for two contests, visiting the Red Wings on Thursday and Northeast Division-leading Buffalo a day later. First, Minnesota has to get past Florida (26-28-10), something it hasn't had any trouble with lately.

The Wild have outscored the Panthers 30-11 in winning seven straight meetings since a 2-1 loss at Florida on Feb. 7, 2001 - Minnesota's only defeat in the series. In their last matchup Oct. 16, 2008, Mikko Koivu had a goal and four assists while Antti Miettinen had two goals and an assist in a 6-2 win.

Minnesota's Niklas Backstrom, who allowed more than three goals Sunday for the first time in eight games, has been in net for each of the last three contests with the Panthers, posting a 2.00 goals-against average.

Florida is in a similar situation to the Wild, sitting in 12th place in the East, seven points behind eighth-place Boston. The Panthers are coming off Saturday's 4-1 win over Carolina, their second straight victory following a season-worst seven-game skid.

"No one expects us to win a lot down the stretch and the guys are anxious to prove people wrong," Florida coach Peter DeBoer said.

The Panthers try to take this success to the road, where they haven't won since a 3-2 victory at Tampa Bay on Jan. 14. Florida's offense has been virtually nonexistent during this six-game road losing streak - the team's longest since dropping a franchise-worst 13 in a row Oct. 27-Dec. 17, 2005 - scoring seven goals.

The Panthers have had no shortage of offense in their last two games, though, with Michael Frolik scoring twice in Wednesday's 7-4 win over Philadelphia and Kamil Kreps recording two goals Saturday.