With Marc-Edouard Vlasic, Antti Niemi and Mike Brown joining Tyler Kennedy, Matt Nieto and Raffi Torres on the shelf, the Sharks have recalled Chris Tierney and Matt Tennyson from Worcester and expect to have both players in the lineup tonight against the Minnesota Wild. There’s hope Vlasic and Niemi will be healthy by Saturday’s game against Nashville but Tennyson and Alex Stalock will take their places in the lineup tonight while Nieto and Brown have been placed on injured reserve alongside Kennedy and Torres. The call-up has been a long time coming for Tierney who was sent down to Worcester in early November and promptly posted 10 points in 12 AHL games. He’ll try to bring some of that offense to San Jose as the Sharks look for their sixth win in seven.

Tale Of The Tape

	@
15-10-1, 31 points	Record	15-11-4, 34 points
5th in Central	Rank	4th in Pacific
55.9%	Score-Adj. Fenwick	51.5%
98.1	PDO	99.6
11.5	PP%	24.2
88.9	PK%	82.8

7:30PM PST | SAP Center | San Jose, California
TV: CSNCA-HD | Radio: SJSharks.com, 98.5 KFOX
Know Your Enemy: Hockey Wilderness, Hashtag Hockey

Projected Sharks Lineup

Tomas Hertl – Joe Thornton – Joe Pavelski
Patrick Marleau – Logan Couture – Tommy Wingels
Barclay Goodrow – James Sheppard – Melker Karlsson
John Scott – Andrew Desjardins – Chris Tierney

Brenden Dillon – Brent Burns
Mirco Mueller – Justin Braun
Scott Hannan – Matt Tennyson

Alex Stalock
Antti Niemi

Projected Wild Lineup

Zach Parise – Mikael Granlund – Thomas Vanek
Jason Zucker – Mikko Koivu – Charlie Coyle
Nino Niederreiter – Erik Haula – Jason Pominville
Ryan Carter – Kyle Brodziak – Justin Fontaine

Ryan Suter – Jonas Brodin
Justin Falk – Jared Spurgeon
Nate Prosser – Christian Folin

Darcy Kuemper
Niklas Backstrom

Last Meeting

Mirco Mueller scored his first NHL goal, helping the Sharks to a 3-1 third period lead in St. Paul, before the wheels fell off and two quick goals by Kyle Brodziak followed by a shootout winner from Jason Pominville gave the Wild a victory in the skills competition.

Storylines

• Defensemen Keith Ballard, injured on a hit by Islanders forward Matt Martin on Tuesday, and Marco Scandella are both out for Minnesota and will be replaced in the lineup by Justin Falk and Christian Folin.
• Sharks third line of Sheppard, Goodrow and Karlsson will stay intact while Tierney draws in on the fourth line alongside Desjardins and either John Scott or Tye McGinn based on morning skate.
• An atrocious power play and decidedly below-average goaltending tandem have them currently outside a playoff spot but the Minnesota Wild are the best possession team in the league as measured by score-adjusted Fenwick%. If the Sharks plan on trading Antti Niemi this season, the Wild could be a prime partner. They’re too good a team to waste this season on garbage goaltending.