Wild vs Sharks NHL Spread/Handicapping
Hot Western Conference Teams Collide – Wild Visit Sharks
The Minnesota Wild who are 8-2 in their last 10 games overall travel to San Jose Wednesday night to take on the a Jose Sharks, a team that has benefitted from a little home cooking and has won five straight games.
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Minnesota Wild (21-12-2) at San Jose Sharks (18-6-11)
When: 10:30 PM ET, Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Where: HP Pavillion at San Jose, San Jose, California
Broadcast: NBCSN, FS-N, CSN-CA
Wild vs. Sharks Betting Lines from BetDSI
Minnesota Wild +1½ -240 +129 Ov 5 -110
San Jose Sharks -1½ +200 -142 Un 5 +100
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The Wild are the cooler of the two teams – they enter Wednesday`s game having lost two straight games after winning seven in a row. Minnesota has won four straight meetings with San Jose however, with each of the last three victories coming at home. The Wild have captured only one of their last six visits to HP Pavilion.
The Minnesota Wild had been on some sort of run – seven straight wins before their latest hiccup of two losses in three games. The reason for the uptick is simple – offense. The team scored 38 goals in nine games before a 4-1 loss last time out. Impressive considering that they were in the bottom third in goals for for most of the season. Zach Parise has proven that he was worth the cash that Minnesota spent on him – he has six points in five games, Devin Setoguchi has 11 points in 11 games and Dany Heatley has found his form once again and has registered seven points in his last nine games. Parise has three goals and five assists in his last six games against the Sharks.
As good as the offense has been the defense and goaltending has been equally good for the Wild. Nicklas Backstrom had an impressive eight game win streak before the loss to St. Louis on Monday. Backstrom is 19-8-2 this season with a 2.40 GAA and .914 save % age. His numbers won suggest it (a 3.40 GAA in his last four games) but he has been solid between the pipes for Minnesota.[ad-4437448]
The San Jose Sharks stretched their win streak to five games with a 3-2 win over the Vancouver Canucks on Monday night – the team has lost just once in regulation on home ice all year! Ryan Clowe is rumored to be on his way out of town to follow Douglas Murray and Michal Handzus but it doesn’t seem to be affecting the Sharks in the least!
The Sharks occupy sixth place in the West all of a sudden despite their unimpressive offense. The team averages 2.34 goals per game and the hottest of the Sharks is Patrick Marleau who has two points in two games. Their problem during a 2-5-2 streak earlier this season was defense – something that has righted itself during the Sharks’ five game win streak.
San Jose can thank Antti Niemi for their recent hot streak. He has been absolutely stellar in going 4-0-0 with a 0.98 GAA and .961 save % age in his last four starts. The Sharks allow just 2.37 goals per game – top third in the NHL in that department so far this year.
Betting Prediction
A few trends to consider:
• MIN are 8-2 in their last 10 overall.
• Under is 5-1-4 in SJ last 10 vs. Northwest.
• SJ are 10-3 in their last 13 vs. Northwest.
• Home team is 8-1 in the last 9 meetings.
The Minnesota Wild have won four straight in the series between the two clubs but three of those wins were in Minnesota. The Sharks are a completely different team on home ice. The Wild are just a .500 team on the road while the Sharks have been deadly as usual at home this year. I like them to stretch their win streak to six games on Wednesday and to send the other Northwest Division leader packing like they did to Vancouver on Monday.
Pick: San Jose Sharks -142
