Minnesota Wild vs. Montreal Canadiens: Game preview, predictions and odds

The Minnesota Wild are on the road to play the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday at 7 p.m. ET.

Minnesota (30-17-4) is coming off a 3-1 win over Toronto on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Montreal (24-21-5) is coming off a 4-1 loss to the Winnipeg Jets.

Wild vs. Canadiens: Head-to-head & key stats

Minnesota is 22-7-1-2 all-time against Montreal
The Wild are averaging 2.92 goals per game
Montreal is 13-9-4 at home
Minnesota is allowing 2.82 goals per game
The Canadiens are allowing 3.34 goals per game
The Wild are 19-5-3 on the road
Montreal is averaging 2.98 goals per game

Minnesota Wild vs. Montreal Canadiens: Preview

Minnesota is on a two-game winning streak and is coming off a 3-1 win over Toronto. In the second half of a back-to-back, the Wild will start Marc-Andre Fleury who's 10-5-1 with a 2.76 GAA and a .904 SV%. In his career against Montreal, he's 27-13-6 with a 2.91 GAA and a .904 SV%.

The Wild are without star forward Kirill Kaprizov who leads the team in points. Minnesota will be led by Matt Boldy, who has 45 points, Marco Rossi (44), Mats Zuccarello (36) and Joel Eriksson Ek with 23 points.

Montreal, meanwhile, is on a three-game losing streak. The Habs are led by Nick Suzuki with 51 points, Cole Caufield has 47, Lane Hutson has 39, Juraj Slafkovsky has 29 and Jake Evans has 25 points.

The Canadiens, meanwhile, are expected to start Jakub Dobes who's 5-0-1 with a 1.93 GAA and a .933 SV%. He's never played Minnesota in his career.

Wild vs. Canadiens: Odds & Prediction

Minnesota is a +105 underdog while Montreal is a -125 favorite. The over/under is set at 6.5 goals.

The Wild are coming off an upset win over Toronto as the Wild played sound defensively and they should be able to pull off another upset win here.

Fleury will be starting his final game in Montreal in his legendary NHL career so Minnesota will be very motivated to get him the win in his home province. Fleury should play well and limit the struggling Habs offense as the Wild will pull off the upset win here.

Prediction: Minnesota 3, Canadiens 2.

Wild vs. Canadiens: Betting Tips

Tip 1: Minnesota ML (+105)

Tip 2: Under 6.5 goals (-130)

Tip 3: Patrik Laine 3+ shots on goal (-115)

Tip 4: Montreal under 2.5 goals (+140)

About the author

Cole is an NHL, NFL and College Sports reporter at Sportskeeda with over 7 years of experience writing for publications like CBC, USA Today, SMG, BJPENN, Sherdog and SB Nation.

An NHL fan his whole life, Cole played rep hockey in Canada from age 5 until 17 and grew up rooting for Martin St. Louis and the Tampa Bay Lightning. His all-time favorite players are Vincent Lecavalier and Steven Stamkos, while Jon Cooper is his favorite coach of all time.

Cole attended Sheridan College and received his journalism degree in 2019. After decades of watching and reporting, he considers his knowledge of sports as his primary strength. He ensures that the same story has been reported by at least two reputed reporters before creating it.

Cole enjoys playing golf and spending time with friends and family when not reporting breaking stories. His favorite sports moment is from the 2010 Olympics, when Sidney Crosby scored the golden goal in overtime to beat Team USA for the gold medal.

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Edited by Victor R. Lopez M.

Minnesota Wild vs. Montreal Canadiens: Game preview, predictions and odds | January 30, 2025

Wild vs. Canadiens: Head-to-head & key stats

Minnesota Wild vs. Montreal Canadiens: Preview

Wild vs. Canadiens: Odds & Prediction

Wild vs. Canadiens: Betting Tips