WILD (20-13-5) at FLYERS (16-16-4)
TV: NBCSN, TSN2, CSN-PH
Last 10: Minnesota 5-5-0; Philadelphia 4-4-2.
Season series: This is the second and final game between the Minnesota Wild and Philadelphia Flyers. The Wild beat the Flyers 2-0 on Dec. 2 at Xcel Energy Center. Josh Harding made 21 saves for the shutout.
Big story: Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren announced Sunday that defenseman Erik Gustafsson will miss the next two weeks with a sprained left knee.
Gustafsson sustained the injury in the third period of a 6-3 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday. He has two goals and five assists in 20 games this season while averaging 16:55 of ice time per game.
Team Scope:
Wild: Minnesota hopes to salvage the final game of its three-game road trip after falling short against the Pittsburgh Penguins and New York Rangers. Jason Pominville gave the Wild an early 1-0 lead Sunday night, but the Rangers responded with four unanswered goals in a 4-1 loss at Madison Square Garden.
"I think once they scored that first one, and then especially when they got that second one, I think we became a little demoralized and kind of changed the way we were playing the game," Wild wing Zach Parise said. "That was for the most part I thought the big difference. Once they got that second goal, we became a little flustered and just were never able to regain any momentum."
Flyers: Philadelphia appeared to be in decent shape after 40 minutes Saturday night, when it found itself in a 2-2 tie after 40 minutes at Nationwide Arena. But David Savard and Boone Jenner scored in the first 5:39 of the third period and the Flyers ultimately suffered a 6-3 loss to the Blue Jackets and had to settle for a split in the home-and-home series.
"We were sitting back too much, maybe asleep in the third period," Flyers defenseman Luke Schenn told CSNPhilly.com. "We had a pretty good end to the second period. I don't know if we thought they would just give up. I don't know what it was, but it was unacceptable to come out in the third period like that."
Who's hot: Pominville has goals in back-to-back games for the Wild. … Flyers forward Wayne Simmonds has three goals and one assist in the past three games.
Injury report: Wild defenseman Clayton Stoner (lower body) is out. Harding (multiple sclerosis treatment) is expected back after the holiday break.