The Wild was encouraged to get back to equilibrium Friday, with its record 11-11-4 after running away from the Senators 7-2.
But the team realizes more strides need to be made to climb to a playoff spot, especially against a Dallas squad that'll visit Xcel Energy Center Sunday after triggering the Wild's most dramatic collapse of the season in the team's previous meeting.
"I'm pretty sure they remember," coach Bruce Boudreau said of the 6-3 loss Oct.29 in Dallas in which the Stars scored five times in the third period. "… Let's face it we got to .500, but that's where we were at Game 1. Our goal is not to be .500 and to advance in this league, you have to be above it and most cases you have to get to 10 games above .500.
"It's great that we reached a plateau, and everybody's happy about it. But it can't be our goal, and Dallas is in [fourth] place in our division. I'm sure they're saying the same thing: 'You gotta keep the teams below you below you.' And we're saying, 'Hey, we gotta catch the teams that are above us.'"
This game holds plenty of other significance for the Wild.
Winger Marcus Foligno seems poised to return to action after missing 10 games with a lower-body injury, but Boudreau wasn't sure after practice Saturday who he'd sub out of the lineup to make room for Foligno.
Boudreau said "there's a good chance" the Wild plays goalie Alex Stalock, who's one start shy of 100 for his career.
And Sunday's game will be captain Mikko Koivu's 1,000th regular-season contest.
