Wild's Kevin Fiala questionable to play vs. Ducks

Kevin Fiala will play Friday when the Wild takes on the Ducks at Xcel Energy Center in its second-to-last home game of the regular season.

Fiala sat out Wednesday with a lower-body injury that isn't serious.

"We're not just resting him," coach Dean Evason said. "There's an injury, but we're being likely a little more cautious."

Zach Parise is a healthy scratch.

Kaapo Kahkonen will be in net, his first appearance in nearly a week. Kahkonen has won three in a row after dropping three straight starts, including the 9-1 loss at St. Louis on April 9.

"We didn't think he had a tough stretch," Evason said. "I guess the 9-1 hockey game maybe, but he played extremely well off of that. The whole team had a bad game, so he's conducted himself extremely well all year. We have great confidence in him."

Despite picking up three out of four points earlier this week against the division-leading Golden Knights, the Wild is still third in the West. But there's still time to climb; the Wild is only a point behind the No. 2 Avalanche, but Colorado does have a game at-hand. The Avalanche is also in action Friday, facing the Kings.

The first two seeds in the West Division will have home-ice advantage for the first-round of the playoffs.

"It's been absolutely fantastic to have our fans in [Xcel Energy Center]," Evason said. "It certainly sounds like 20,000 not 3,000. It's exciting, for sure. We've conducted ourselves very well here all year. Would we love to have home-ice advantage? Of course. But if we don't, we're prepared to play no matter where we play."

UPDATED Projected lineup:

Jordan Greenway-Joel Eriksson Ek-Marcus Foligno

Kirill Kaprizov- Ryan Hartman-Mats Zuccarello

Kevin Fiala-Victor Rask-Marcus Johansson

Nick Bonino-Nico Sturm-Nick Bjugstad

Ryan Suter-Jared Spurgeon

Jonas Brodin-Matt Dumba

Carson Soucy-Ian Cole

Kaapo Kahkonen

Key numbers:

5-1: Record for the Wild this season vs. the Ducks.

7-1-1: Run for the Wild over its last nine games against Anaheim.

197: Career points for Fiala.

5-4: Showing for the Wild in the first game of a back-to-back.

18: Power play goals for the Wild in the past 18 games.

About the Ducks:

This series against the Wild will wrap up Anaheim's season. The Ducks are at the bottom of the West Division with 41 points, but they've won three of their last five games. Most recently, the team upended the Blues 3-2 in a shootout on Wednesday. Overall, Anaheim is 5-3 in its last eight road games. Captain Ryan Getzlaf has 38 points in 54 career games against the Wild.