It is already known that the Dallas Stars and the Minnesota Wild will face each other in the first round of the Stanley Cup. The only remaining question is which team will have home-ice advantage in a possible Game 7.
Dallas Stars
So this will not only be a dress rehearsal, but also, in a way, a play-in round. At the moment the hosts are two points ahead of the visitors, and both sides have played the same number of games (78). If they finish the regular season level on points, the hosts will take second place in the Central Division, because they have significantly more regulation wins (35 to 30). Even if the visitors win tonight, the gap in regulation wins will still be four. It's not that the hosts are conserving energy, but even with Jamie Benn, Mikko Rantanen, Jason Robertson and Miro Heiskanen in the line-up, they lost their last home game to the Calgary Flames, who no longer have anything to play for (3:4 OT).
Minnesota Wild
Perhaps this is a controlled chase, because the visitors are clearly setting a higher pace (7:3:0) than the hosts (3:5:2). Three weeks ago the gap between them was six points, and the visitors had played two games more. Right now it is not even Kirill Kaprizov who is carrying the visitors (seven points in five games), but Ryan Hartman (5+5 in five). Because of a minor injury, the Russian forward missed the game against the hosts on 21 March. Perhaps that is why the visitors won by such a small margin (2:1 OT)?
Dallas Stars vs Minnesota Wild Prediction
Although the hosts have lost half of their games over the recent stretch, in eight fixtures their opponents have not scored more than three times against them. In this context we choose the under 6.5 goals bet, despite his return to the line-up.
