It’s been a long season on the road and tonight the Sharks will play their final regular season road game against the Wild. While San Jose has been rather disappointing at home, their success playing away from SAP Center is the reason why they’ll be playing more games after Saturday’s regular season finale.

While they are still in contention for home ice for the first-round of the playoffs, there’s no reason to believe they wouldn’t be able to go 1-1 or even 2-0 in the opening two games of the playoffs if they finish third in the Pacific. The Sharks 27-10-3 record on the road isn’t just good, it’s spectacular. In a world of sports where protecting your home arena is crucial to success, the Sharks have reversed that trend and have absolutely dominated other teams in their own building.

They’ve won games where they take early leads and don’t look back but also games where they fall into an early hole and seemingly climb out time and time again. Tonight’s game against the (likely) playoff-bound Wild will be another tough test on the road for San Jose, but it’s an opportunity to build on that success and set a a franchise record for wins on the road in a single-season.

	@
44-29-6	Record	38-31-11
3rd in Pacific	Rank	5th in Central
53.4%	Score-Adj. Fenwick	48.7%
99.9	PDO	100.9
22.1	PP%	19.1
80.4	PK%	77.9

5 p.m. PDT | Xcel Energy Center | St. Paul, Minnesota

TV: CSN-CA, FS-N Radio: SJSharks.com, KFOX 98.5

Know Your Enemy: Hockey Wilderness

Last Meeting:

Joe Pavelski scored the game-winner at 18:36 in the third period and San Jose defeated Minnesota 4-3. Tomas Hertl, Joel Ward, and Joonas Donskoi added goals as well before Pavelski’s game-winner.

Storylines:

• James Reimer back in net. Pete DeBoer has yet to announce a starter for the playoffs, but everybody and their mom knows it’ll be Martin Jones.
• The Wild will need to win against the Sharks tonight OR have Colorado lose to Nashville to clinch the final playoff berth in the Western Conference. They are currently five points ahead of Colorado in the standings.
• With Los Angeles losing Monday night, the a Sharks win would put them just one point behind the Kings for second place.

Would you rather have the Sharks open the playoffs at home or on the road?