ST. PAUL, Minn - The Minnesota Wild is back in action tonight for Game 6 against the Vegas Golden Knights. It is a win or go home situation for the Wild as they look to force a Game 7 back in Vegas with a win tonight. 

The Wild are not expected to make any changes tonight. Head coach John Hynes said this morning that Filip Gustavsson should start tonight. He left Game 5 after the second period with an illness. 

We won't know the lines until warmups but the Wild are expected to roll out the same lineup tonight as Game 5. 

For the Golden Knights, Pavel Dorofeyev will miss tonight's game. Golden Knights head coach Bruce Cassidy said this morning that Dorofeyev is listed as day-to-day. 

Victor Olofsson will come in and replace Dorofeyev in the lineup. He played in the first three games of the series until the Golden Knights decided to play Tanner Pearson for the last two games. He assisted on the Game 5 overtime winner.

Here are tonight's projected lines (subject to change). 

Wild Projected Lines

Kirill Kaprizov - Joel Eriksson Ek - Matt Boldy

Marcus Johansson - Ryan Hartman - Mats Zuccarello

Marcus Foligno - Freddy Gaudreau - Gustav Nyquist

Yakov Trenin - Marco Rossi - Justin Brazeau

Defense:

Jonas Brodin - Brock Faber

Jake Middleton - Jared Spurgeon

Jon Merrill - Zach Bogosian

Starting Goaltender: Filip Gustavsson

Scratched: Declan Chisholm, Devin Shore, Jesper Wallstedt, Liam Ohgren, Vinnie Hinostroza, Zeev Buium.

Injured: None

Black Aces:Hunter Haight, Cameron Crotty, Carson Lambos, Travis Boyd, Brendan Gaunce, Samuel Hlavaj, and Ben Jones. 

Golden Knights Projected Lines

William Karlsson - Jack Eichel - Mark Stone

Brandon Saad - Tomas Hertl - Victor Olofsson

Ivan Barbashev - Nicolas Roy - Reilly Smith

Tanner Pearson - Brett Howden - Keegan Kolesar

Defense:

Brayden McNabb – Shea Theodore

Nicolas Hague - Alex Pietrangelo

Noah Hanifin - Zach Whitecloud

Starting Goaltender: Adin Hill

Scratched: Alexander Holtz, Ben Hutton, Ilya Samsonov, Kaedan Korczak, Cole Schwindt. 

Injured: Pavel Dorofeyev

Make sure you bookmark The Hockey News' Minnesota Wild page for the latest news, exclusive interviews, breakdowns and so much more.

Wild Related News

Wild's Filip Gustavsson Expected To Start In Goal For Game 6ST. PAUL, Minn - There was some concern when Filip Gustavsson left Game 5 after the second period with an illness and then to not return to the bench for the rest of the game.  Golden Knights Face Wild For Game 6 Tonight Without Their Top Goal ScorerST. PAUL, Minn - The Vegas Golden Knights will be without its top goal scorer from the regular season. Head coach Bruce Cassidy confirmed this morning that Pavel Dorofeyev will not play tonight. 

The Buffalo Sabres have clear goals in this off-season, including being a better defensive team. But one of the biggest tasks for the Sabres has to be getting a key defenseman locked up under contract for as long as possible.

We’re speaking, of course, of young defenseman and pending RFA Bowen Byram. The 23-year-old is coming off a season in which he set personal-bests in assists (31) and points (38), and Sabres GM Kevyn Adams cannot afford to let Byram get away.

It’s definitely going to be costly to get Byram’s signature on a contract extension. He’s been making $3.85-million for the past three seasons, and a healthy raise will put him in the area of $6-to-$8-million per season. But while that amount of money will carry with it a certain degree of sticker shock for Sabres fans, what’s the alternative here – letting Byram walk away? That would hurt Buffalo more than figuring out how to keep him in a Sabres uniform.

You have to know there will be teams prepared to pay Byram that amount. And considering that the NHL’s salary cap ceiling will rise exponentially in the next few seasons, giving Byram a major raise won’t hurt as much as it would in a flat-cap situation. Most teams are paying quite a bit to keep their top-four defensemen happy, and Byram is definitely a top-four talent on the back end.

For that reason, Adams has to do whatever it takes to keep Byram in the fold. If the Sabres are going to finally take that next competitive step and get into the playoffs next season, they need to have Byram’s dynamic performance working for them. Buffalo ownership can’t let a million dollars here or there be the reason why Byram chooses to play elsewhere, and signs an offer sheet with a different team that drives up his asking price even higher than it’s already projected to go. He’s still not close to his prime, so investing in him now makes a lot of sense.

Sabres Facing An Off-Season Of ChangeThe Buffalo Sabres, at their season-ending press availability, were all singing from the same hymn book, and the song was Bruce Hornsby’s “Gonna Be Some Changes Made”. The questions that will be utmost in the minds of a frustrated fanbase will be what kind of changes, and in the end, will those changes have the desired effect of ending the club’s 14-year playoff drought. 

Byram isn’t a lockdown defensive specialist, but he is a savvy offense-minded D-man whose skill set would be highly-valued by many teams. The Sabres landed a solid talent when they acquired him from the Colorado Avalanche, and now their job is to keep him around for the foreseeable future.

And if they don’t, Sabres management will be rightfully ripped for letting an above-average asset get away.

There are very few negatives that come with advancing past the opening round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Actually, this may be the only one.

Once teams move to round two, their respective local game broadcasts go away. The only networks that can broadcast past the first round are the national rightsholders.

That means Game 5 in Tampa Bay was the last game that Florida Panthers play-by-play voice Steve Goldstein and analyst Randy Moller will be calling this season.

That’s the bad news.

But don’t fret, because there is some good news.

While there won’t be any more games to call for the Panthers’ local Scripps Sports broadcast team, fans will still be able to get playoff info and analysis from the crew before every single playoff game.

Great news South Florida sports fans... our @ScrippsSports
coverage of @FlaPanthers Stanley Cup run continues!

30 minute pregame show before every game on the same stations you watched all season. Thanks for tuning in all year, see ya next round! pic.twitter.com/ybjYhtWHck

— Steve Goldstein (@goldieonice) May 1, 2025

Starting with Game 1 of the second round, Scripps will be offering a full 30 minute pregame show that the entire Panthers’ crew, which includes Goldstein, Moller, Katie Engelson, Jessica Blaylock and Ed Jovanovski, will be a part of.

Additionally, each show will have coverage both in studio and on site for every game, home and away.

For those who crave the local flavor during the most important games the Panthers will play, this news should come as music to your ears.

We’ll find out soon enough who Florida will be facing in the second round, either Toronto or Ottawa, but either way, Goldie and his gang will be there to cover it, every step of the way.

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