Oilers, Wild meet again at Edmonton

Last week, Edmonton was able to snap an epic 17-game slide in Minnesota.

With the clubs set to meet for the second time in six days tonight, the Oilers will settle for halting a modest losing streak to the Wild at Rexall Place.

These Northwest Division residents met twice back in October, with the Wild walking away with a pair of 2-1 shootout victories to run their overall series winning streak to eight games in a row.

Minnesota's victory on Oct. 13 was also its 17th in a row at home over Edmonton, but the Oilers finally ended that skid with their first victory at Xcel Energy Center since Jan. 16, 2007. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored twice in the 5-2 triumph, while Taylor Hall had a goal and an assist.

The Oilers, though, will be without Hall for this game as they try to best the Wild for the first time in the past five meetings in Edmonton. Hall is expected to miss 2-for-4 weeks with a left shoulder injury suffered in a loss to Colorado on Saturday.

"I thought I was going to be out a little bit shorter period of time, but 2- to-4 weeks isn't bad," Hall said. "It's not like I am missing a huge chunk of games where it's going to take me three or four games to get back into the swing of things. I want to get back as quick as I can, obviously. I'll just try to rehab it as quick as possible."

The 20-year-old former No. 1 pick of the 2010 draft did not play in Monday's 2-1 loss to Nashville as Edmonton lost its second straight in the opener of a six-game homestand.

Jordan Eberle scored the lone goal and Nikolai Khabibulin turned aside 29 shots in defeat for the Oilers, who will play only their fourth home game of the month and have gone 1-2 in the previous three.

With Hall out of the lineup, head coach Tom Renney said afterwards that he felt his club passed up opportunities to put shots on net.

"I thought it was a decent start. The story for me tonight is shoot the puck," said Renney. "Had we done that and gotten a little more territory off of that I think we had an excellent chance of winning the hockey game."

Minnesota's loss to Edmonton last week snapped a five-game win streak and the club followed up the defeat with another 5-2 setback at home to Calgary on Sunday. However, the Wild bounced back the following night to defeat the Lightning, 3-1, and close out a six-game homestand.

Niklas Backstrom was pulled less than 10 minutes into the game versus the Flames, but rebounded on Monday to make 32 saves. Cal Clutterbuck added his third short-handed goal of the season and Mikko Koivu iced the game with an empty-net tally that was his 100th career goal. The two each had an assist as well.

"We had some trouble getting through their defense early on," said Minnesota head coach Mike Yeo. "You're not going to be able to dance through their zone. You just have to keep forcing them with the forecheck and aggressive play. It's difficult, but they can be beat and we were able to do that tonight."

Minnesota will play six of its next seven on the road and is 5-3-2 as the guest this year.