Minnesota vs Utah Hockey Club Prediction 24 January 2025

🔊 Will the "Wild" manage to settle the score for their home defeat at the end of last year? The end of the regular season and the start of the Stanley Cup playoffs are just around the corner. Currently, Utah is outside the top-8, which means an early end to the season after the completion of all regular season matches. Nevertheless, a victory at the "Xcel Energy Center" could slightly improve the standings for the team from Salt Lake City. Let's look at the bookmakers' preliminary predictions for the meeting: Minnesota win - 2.3, Utah success - 2.65.

📊 H2H

This season, the teams have faced each other twice. In both cases, Utah managed to earn points (4:5 after shootouts; 2:1). The Minnesota players are extremely disappointed with the outcome of the last home head-to-head match (1:2), where they simply failed to convert their game advantage into goals.

🟢 MINNESOTA

The club from the namesake state has achieved only 1 win in their last 4 matches - against Colorado (3:1). John Hynes is in his second season leading Minnesota, and club fans hope that this time their favorites will finally advance beyond the 1st round of the playoffs. Recall that this hasn't happened since the 2014/15 season when the "Wild" managed to knock out the St. Louis Blues from the Stanley Cup playoffs (4:2 in the series). Key personnel losses for "Minny" include injuries to Jonas Brodin, Marcus Johansson, Kirill Kaprizov, and Jared Spurgeon.

⚪ UTAH

Utah's debut season in the NHL brings mixed emotions. On one hand, at times, the team from Salt Lake City looked truly impressive and could compete with the league's strongest teams. However, a lack of stability, insufficient support from lower lines, and a large amount of time spent shorthanded are reasons for being only in 11th place in the "West." Note that this season Utah has had to battle with an opponent's power play for 254 minutes and 32 seconds (3rd worst result in the NHL).

📌 EXPECTED LINEUPS

Minnesota: Fleury - Middleton, Faber - Boldy, Rossi, Zuccarello

Utah: Ingram - Marino, Määtä - Schmaltz, Cooley, Keller

🥅 GOALIES

40-year-old Marc-André Fleury continues to delight all NHL fans with his play. The recent victory of "Minny" against Colorado (3:1) was largely thanks to the Canadian goalie (26 saves). The veteran's average stats indicate he's experiencing a "second youth" - 90.93% save percentage, GAA - 2.6.

This season has been uneven for Connor Ingram. The 27-year-old goaltender has participated in 16 matches this regular season. During this stretch, the Canadian managed to save only 88.22% of shots, and his goals-against average is 3.29.

📝 MATCH PREDICTION

Minnesota is the favorite; however, the "Wild's" instability and previous head-to-head meetings between opponents do not allow for a confident prediction of a home win. In this situation, we suggest focusing on a trend related to both teams. Total less than 2.5 goals in the 2nd period has played out in 6 consecutive matches for Minnesota and in 7 straight involving Utah. We propose stopping at this betting option.