New York Rangers plays host to the Minnesota Wild
The New York Rangers will be playing host to the Minnesota Wild this Thursday at the Madison Square Garden.
This will be the second and final meeting between the two teams as they face each other for the first time in 2011.
Their first game at the Xcel Energy Centre saw the Rangers came up with a dominating performance and win the game 5-2 in the end comfortably.
This is the second game on consecutive nights for the Wild as they look to stay in the hunt for a play-off spot which is heated up already in the Western Conference.
Their game against the New York Islanders tonight saw them coming across a disappointing 4-1 loss in the end.
They really didn’t have the play-offs teams have which resulted in them losing the game against one of the weak teams in the Eastern Conference.
"Obviously, we haven't been good the last couple of games," center Kyle Brodziak said, referring also to Monday's 4-2 home loss to Chicago. "We definitely need more desperation. We're fighting for our playoff lives here."
The Wild have recently come across defensive issues which have seen them allow a lot of goals.
In their most recent game against the Islanders, goal keeper Niklas Backstrom was never in his usual sweet form as the allowing three goals out of 19 goal attempts.
The All-Star goal keeper was consequently replaced by Jose Theodore in the second period.
However, the game was all but over as the Wild couldn’t come up with any shots on goal while the Islanders bagged 16 goal attempts during the first period alone.
"It's frustrating," Brodziak said. "It was a must-win for us, and we didn't get the job done. It makes (Thursday) night even that much bigger. We have to stop the slide now and do whatever it takes tomorrow to turn it around."
The Wild have played 64 games during the course of the season so far out which they have won 33 games in regulation time, six games in overtime to score a total of 72 points.
The Rangers have played 65 games and won 33 games in regulation time, four games in overtime to score 70 points.
The Rangers are seventh in the Eastern Conference and just a point above the Hurricanes who are in the final play-off spot.
They came up with some strong performances during the start of the season but haven’t been able to do so during the time after the middle part of the season.
They have been regularly dropping points with the most recent game against the Buffalo Sabres this past Tuesday which saw them losing the game 2-1 in the end.
"It comes down to that we are not scoring enough at home to win games here," Rangers forward Vinny Prospal said. "It seems like we are not able to capitalize on their mistakes. And it has been the difference lately."
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