NHL Hockey Betting: Minnesota Wild at Montreal Canadiens

The red hot Minnesota Wild take their 8 game winning streak to the Bell Centre tonight to take on the Montreal Canadiens. Minnesota is 8-1-1 in their last 10 games and have pulled into second place in the Central Division six points back of the Chicago Blackhawks. The Canadiens have cooled off somewhat from their nasty form earlier in the season but are still maintaining their lead atop the Atlantic Division. They’ve got 46 points putting them 5 ahead of second place Ottawa and 9 points ahead of third place Boston. They’re 5-3-2 in their past 10 games which will definitely be enough to maintain atop the division.

Heavyweight goaltending matchup in this game. Montreal will start Carey Price who is 18-4-2 with a 1.87 goals against average and a 0.936 save percentage with two shutouts. Minnesota will go with Devan Dubnyk who is 16-6-3 with a 1.55 goals against average and 0.948 save percentage with 5 shutouts. The Canadiens are 9-7 against opponents with winning records while the Wild are 8-1 +7.6 units. They’ve also been excellent in non-conference games (9-4 +4.6 units). Minnesota won both meetings last year but since both were after Carey Price went out for the year it’s hard to take much from that. That’s also why the Wild are 3-1 in the last four meetings including 1-1 at the Bell Centre.

Minnesota has the best team goals against average in hockey (1.87) while Montreal is #4 (2.16). Montreal has the #4 goals per game average (3.13) while Minnesota has the #7 goals per game average (2.90). Both teams are mediocre on the power play though Minnesota has a nasty #5 penalty killing stat (85.1%) but Montreal is #17 (81.2%). They have an identical +31 differential. One factor might be injuries–the Habs have a long list of injured players with Andrei Markov recently added to that tally. Alexei Emelin is listed as ‘questionable’. To their credit, the Habs have been able to maintain their momentum despite a lot of injuries this year but this is a matchup where all hands should be on deck. Montreal is 15-2-2 in their games at the Bell Centre this year and the Wild are just 7-5-4 on the road. This is just a terrible time to catch Minnesota and particularly with the Canadiens at less than full strength.

BET MINNESOTA WILD +110 OVER MONTREAL CANADIENS