Minnesota Wild (24-13-3) vs Arizona Coyotes (19-19-5)
Game Info: Wednesday, April 14, 2021 at 2:00 pm (Xcel Energy Center)
Betting Odds: Minnesota Wild -185 / Arizona Coyotes +160 --- Over/Under: 5.5 Click Here for the Latest Odds
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The Arizona Coyotes and the Minnesota Wild meet in NHL action from the Xcel Energy Center on Wednesday afternoon.
The Arizona Coyotes will be out to rebound from a 4-2 loss to Colorado last time out. Phil Kessel leads the Coyotes in scoring with 33 points including a team-high 15 goals and 18 assists while Conor Garland has 31 points with a team-high 21 assists this season. Clayton Keller, Jakob Chychrun and Christian Dvorak each have 12 goals this season as well for Arizona. As a team, Arizona is averaging 2.6 goals on 26.2 shots with a 19.4% success rate on the power play while allowing 3 goals on 31.5 shots with an 82.3% success rate on the PK.
The Minnesota Wild will look to bounce back from a 3-2 OT loss to St. Louis in their last game. Kirill Kaprizov leads the Wild in scoring with 34 points including a team-high 16 goals and 18 assists while Kevin Fiala has 25 points with 14 goals and 11 assists and Joel Greenway has a team-high 19 assists this year. Joel Eriksson Ek also has 13 goals while Mats Zuccarello has 16 assists on the year. As a team, Minnesota is averaging 3 goals per game on 28.7 shots with a 14.5% success rate on the power play while allowing 2.7 goals on 31 shots against with an 84.4% success rate on the PK.
Arizona is 18-38 in their last 56 games as a road underdog and 0-4 in their last 4 games overall while the over is 5-1 in their last 6 games against a team with a winning record. Minnesota is 13-3 in their last 16 home games while the under is 6-2 in their last 8 home games. The favorite is 4-1 in the last 5 meetings between these two teams.
I think a case could be made for either side here, as the Wild are the better team playing better hockey over the long haul, but the Coyotes also are getting a lot of plus money and like it or not, the Wild may be a bit distracted with all the activity going on in the background. Both teams have had a tendency to give up goals in bunches as of late though, so I’ll side with the over in this spot.
Chris’s Pick Over 5.5
AUTHOR: Chris Ruffolo
Follow Chris Ruffolo on Twitter @ruffthepickdawg