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Wild coach Lemaire on verge of milestone

Dec 18, 2007 - 2:28 PM Nashville (14-14-2) at Minnesota (18-12-2) 8:00 pm EST

ST. PAUL, Minnesota (Ticker) - Win or lose, one member of the Minnesota Wild organization will reach a milestone Tuesday when the team hosts the Nashville Predators.

The game will be the 1,000th in the regular season for Wild coach Jacques Lemaire, who will be the 14th NHL coach to reach the mark. Lemaire will join active coaches Mike Keenan, Jacques Martin and Ron Wilson.

Minnesota is 10-5-0 at home and 7-3-0 in its last 10 games, including a 2-1 victory on Saturday at Los Angeles. The Wild killed off all eight Los Angeles power plays in the victory.

The Predators have lost three straight, including a 3-1 loss on Saturday at Colorado. Goaltender Peter Budaj had 31 saves for Nashville.

"That's the third game in a row where we did all the right things, played at a high energy level and walk away with a loss," Nashville coach Barry Trotz said. "We are ringing posts, missing wide-open nets and have nothing to show for it."

Right wing Martin Erat, who leads the Predators with 25 points, is expected to play after leaving last Monday's loss to Detroit in the final minutes with a strained neck.