Wild defenseman Jonas Brodin misses second consecutive game

Jonas Brodin was sidelined for a second straight game Thursday after getting hurt earlier in the week, but Wild coach Dean Evason hopes the defenseman can play sooner rather than later.

"Optimistic," was how Evason described the situation.

Brodin scored his second goal of the season Monday at Arizona and blocked seven shots to tie his career high but suffered a lower-body injury late in the 3-2 loss for the Wild.

He was absent Wednesday when Dallas downed the Wild 4-1 and remained out against Vegas. Alex Goligoski stayed in Brodin's spot alongside Matt Dumba, the first time Goligoski has logged consecutive games since Jan. 19 and 21.

The Wild did make one lineup change from Wednesday, starting Marc-Andre Fleury in net after Filip Gustavsson stopped 33 shots from the Stars. One of those saves by Gustavsson came while facing his first career penalty shot, an attempt by Radek Faksa after Faksa was hauled down by Jordan Greenway in the third period.

With his appearance Thursday at the beginning of a seven-game homestand for the Wild, Fleury moved into sole possession of fourth on the NHL's all-time games played list for goaltenders.

Fleury tied Terry Sawchuk at 971 games on Monday against the Coyotes; now at 972, he's 57 away from third-place Patrick Roy (1,029). While Fleury won't be able to close that gap this season (there are only 31 games left on the Wild's schedule), catching Roy in wins isn't impossible. Roy is second in league history with 551 and Fleury ranks third, entering action on Thursday at 536.

That start by the 38-year-old Fleury at Xcel Energy Center was only his second career game vs. the Golden Knights.

After getting picked in Vegas' expansion draft from Pittsburgh in 2017, Fleury went 117-60-14 with the Golden Knights before they traded him to the Blackhawks in 2021. He won his return to Vegas the following year, giving him victories against all 32 NHL clubs.

Although their game against Dallas was testy at times, the Wild kept their composure for the most part.

They were dinged with only one penalty and not until the third period after taking six on Monday in their first game after the All-Star break. That was only the fourth time the Wild committed one penalty or none this season.

"I thought we did a really good job," Marcus Foligno said. "We were physical from the get-go and smart and in their face. That's gotta be our bread and butter.

"We can't be penalty killing six, seven times per game. It's two, three or less. That gives us the best chance to succeed."

Evason didn't consider using a coach's challenge to try to reverse the goaltender interference call against Greenway late in the second period Wednesday that wiped out a goal by Ryan Hartman.

Had the tally counted, it would have trimmed the Wild's deficit to 3-2.

The Wild are 1-2 in coach's challenges this season; they successfully nixed an Anaheim goal Nov. 9 (offside) but are 0-for-2 in tries to overturn goaltender interference (Dec. 12 vs. Edmonton and Jan. 19 at Carolina).

"[Greenway's] route was to go there," Evason said. "Even though he gets bumped a little bit, they're not overturning that."