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Wild try to break out of offensive slump in Vancouver

Mar 14, 2011 - 3:08 PM (Sports Network) - While the Canucks are coming off one of their best road trips in over 19 years, the Wild have yet to score a goal on theirs.

Minnesota hopes to break out of an offensive funk in the continuation of a four-game swing, while Vancouver tries to record its third straight 100-point season and close in on a Northwest Division title this evening at Rogers Arena.

The Wild have been blanked in consecutive 4-0 games by Nashville and Dallas to being their road trip, falling to the Stars on Friday one night after their defeat at the Predators.

Minnesota hardly tested Dallas netminder Kari Lehtonen, who needed to make just 14 stops to record the shutout. The Wild were whitewashed in back-to-back games for the fourth time in club history.

Jose Theodore gave up four goals on 31 shots for the Wild, who have lost five of their last seven and are four points out of a playoff spot with 13 games to play. They'll try to make up some ground tonight and avoid dropping three in a row for the first time since Jan. 9-14.

The Wild are hoping to get captain Mikko Koivu back for the first time in 12 games due to a broken left index finger. He has been out since Feb. 18, while Clayton Stoner could also return after missing the last three games with a groin injury.

However, Cal Clutterbuck is expected to miss his fifth game in a row with a head injury, while Cam Barker and Guillaume Latendresse are both out.

Minnesota, which remains one road win shy of the club-record 19 recorded twice before in team history, is likely to go back to Niklas Backstrom in net tonight. He is 11-8-5 with a 2.37 goals-against average in his career versus the Canucks, splitting two starts versus them this year.

He'll have his hands full with the streaking Canucks, who posted their first perfect five-game road trip on Saturday since January of 1992. They did so with a 4-3 triumph in Calgary after also recording victories in Los Angeles, Anaheim, Phoenix and San Jose.

"I don't look at it as a five-game road trip," said Canucks head coach Alain Vigneault. "I look at it as one game at a time. We got ready for each game, we analyzed it, we learned from it, and we moved to the next."

Daniel Sedin scored a pair of goals to give him 37 on the season, surpassing his career high of 36 scored in 2006-07. He also leads the league with 89 points and has five goals and five assists over a five-game point streak.

Twin brother Henrik Sedin is also riding a five-game run, notching a goal and eight assists over his burst. He notched a pair of helpers on Saturday, including the 500th of his NHL career.

Ryan Kesler and Alexandre Burrows also scored and Roberto Luongo finished with 20 saves for the Canucks, who lead the NHL with 99 points. Vancouver, which owns six pervious 100-point seasons, is eight points up on the Flyers and nine ahead of the Red Wings for the most in the league.

Tanner Glass is questionable with an upper-body injury tonight for Vancouver, which plays its next three at home.

Luongo is 12-14-4 with a tie and 3.02 GAA in his career versus the Wild and has faced them just once this season. He was drilled for six goals on just 18 shots in 40 minutes of that outing back on Oct. 19.

The two teams have split four meetings so far this season, but the Canucks have still won eight of the last 12 matchups as well as five straight and six of the last seven played in Vancouver.