Minnesota (20-16-2-1) at Philadelphia (21-10-4-5)

Minnesota (20-16-3) has started its four-game road trip with Backstrom blanking Colorado on Sunday and Boston on Tuesday. The 30-year-old netminder, selected to his first All-Star game on Wednesday, has never had three consecutive shutouts and the only other time he had two in a row came in a home-and-home series with Edmonton from April 3-5, 2007.

His 1-0 victory over Boston, the East leader and highest-scoring team in the conference, was the Wild's sixth straight win against Eastern teams and improved their record versus the opposite conference to 10-1-1.

Minnesota's power play has come to life, scoring at least one goal in four consecutive games (3-0-1) after a 1-for-19 slump, but it's Backstrom and the defense which have keyed the Wild's surge.

Backstrom has started all of the Wild's games against the East except their regulation loss to Montreal on Oct. 30, and is 13-0-3 versus Eastern teams since a 4-1 defeat at Washington on Feb. 26.

PICK: MIN

Chicago (22-8-2-5) at Colorado (20-19-0-1)

Coming off two dominant victories, the Blackhawks will try to make it three in a row on Thursday when they continue their three-game road trip against the Colorado Avalanche.

Chicago (22-8-7) has gone from being a young, up-and-coming team to one that's been nearly unbeatable over the past month. Since the beginning of December, the Blackhawks have lost three games - all to Stanley Cup champion Detroit - and they've won their other 12 contests.

Following a pair of losses to the Red Wings on Dec. 30 and Jan. 1, Chicago rebounded quickly with some incredible hot streaks in their next two games.

Three goals late in the second period blew open a 1-1 tie with Calgary on Sunday, as the Blackhawks went on to win 5-2. Two nights later in Phoenix, Chicago scored four times in five minutes in the first period, then got two goals from Jonathan Toews in a 6-0 rout of the Coyotes, goaltender Cristobal Huet's second shutout of the season.

"It was a game that we wanted to get off on a good start on this trip," coach Joel Quenneville said. "Guys have been really diligent in their preparation for this trip. ... No matter who the opposition is we want to make sure we're consistent in our game and today we were."

The Blackhawks have won their last two games without leading scorer Patrick Kane, who's dealing with an ankle injury suffered in the loss at Detroit on Dec. 30. Kane is day-to-day, but likely will be held out for at least one more game.

Budaj started both meetings with Colorado this season. Andrew Ladd and Patrick Sharp scored twice apiece in a 6-2 Blackhawks' win in Chicago on Nov. 3, then Dustin Byfuglien had a pair of goals in the Blackhawks' 4-3 victory in Denver on Dec. 12.

PICK: CHI

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