• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers
• Game Tracker

Suter, Wild visit Preds in clash between winless clubs

Oct 8, 2013 - 2:57 PM (SportsNetwork.com) - The Minnesota Wild and Nashville Predators will both be trying to avoid starting the season with three straight setbacks as the club's clash on Tuesday night in the home opener at Bridgestone Arena.

The Predators have lost their first two games this season in regulation and are in danger of opening 0-3 for the first time since 2006-07.

The Wild, meanwhile, logged two post-regulation setbacks at home and hit the road with the possibility of posting their worst start since beginning the 2000-01 season, their first in the NHL, 0-4 with a tie.

Minnesota, which has never lost three straight to begin a season, suffered a shootout loss to Los Angeles on Thursday prior to a 4-3 overtime setback to Anaheim on Saturday.

The Ducks' Mathieu Perreault snuck the game-winner though the pads of Niklas Backstrom with less than five seconds left in the extra frame. Backstrom ended with 26 saves.

Zach Parise scored twice and Jason Pominville added a goal for the Wild.

"Good to battle back and get a point, but we're not happy about this one," said Wild head coach Mike Yeo.

Minnesota lost more than the game as center Charlie Coyle is expected to miss 3-to-4 weeks with a knee sprain suffered versus Anaheim. He has eight goals and six assists in 37 games last season.

Jason Zucker was recalled from Iowa of the American Hockey League and recorded four goals in 20 games with Minnesota a season ago.

The Preds began last season with consecutive shootout losses and went 1-2-3 in their first six. They are off to an 0-2-0 start this season and have been out of action since Friday's 3-1 loss in Colorado.

Paul Gaustad had the lone goal for the Preds off assists from Mike Fisher and Craig Smith.

Pekka Rinne made 33 saves one night after getting pulled less than 10 minutes into a 4-2 loss to St. Louis, with the goaltender giving up three goals on six shots.

"It's not about the effort. I think we battled hard tonight," said Rinne following the loss to the Avs.

Nashville begins a five-game homestand and will be without defenseman Roman Josi due to a concussion sustained versus Colorado.

Though the Wild won their final two meetings with the Predators last season, both after regulation, Nashville is 7-1-2 in the past 10 encounters overall and 5-0-1 in the last six at home.

Minnesota has not picked up a road regulation win in this series since Dec. 5, 2009, but will try to do so in Ryan Suter's second trip back to Nashville.

Suter was the seventh overall pick by the Preds in the 2003 draft and notched 238 points in 542 games with the club before signing a 13-year deal with the wild in July of 2012.

He had an assist in a 2-1 shootout victory in his first trip to Nashville on March 9.