NHL Hockey
2007-12-31 - San Jose Shaks at Minnesota Wild
A Sports Betting Pick by zamboni
The San Jose Sharks (21-12-0-5) have been on fire, playing on the road this season and will look to continue with their success tonight as they travel to Minnesota to play the Wild (22-14-0-2).The Sharks have won 15 of 20 road games this year, including 9 consecutive wins away from home. Amazingly, the Sharks have lost on 2 games in regulation in the past 20 road games. San Jose has been getting excellent goaltending from Evgeni Nabokov, who has a stellar 1.99 goals against average this season, 3rd best in the NHL. Nabokov leads the league with 21 wins thus far with 15 of these games coming on the road.
The Sharks penalty-kill has been the best in the NHL so far this season, allowing only 19 goals in 154 (87%) shorthanded situations. Better still, the Sharks penalty kill is an astounding 91% away from home this year.
The Minnesota Wild have also been having a terrific season so far. They got off to a great start this year, winning 8 of their first 9 games. They did have some injury problems shortly thereafter and lost 5 straight games. The Wild have won 7 of their past 10 games and are 13-6-0 at home this season. Goaltending has also been solid for the Wild this season, with Nicklas Backstrom between the pipes. Backstrom is currently sporting a 2.55 goals against average this year. However, he has not achieved success against the Sharks, losing both contests, allowing 4 goals in both games.
The Wild have been very good on the power-play of late, scoring on 40% of their chances with the man advantage. The power-play goals seem to come in bunches for the Wild, scoring 3 or more power-play goals in their past 10 games. I don’t expect similar tonight against a Sharks team that has been the best when it comes to being a man down.
The Sharks have won the last 4 meetings between these 2, most recently a 4-1 victory on home ice back on December 11th. Interestingly, but not necessarily relevant here is the home team has scored 1 power-play goal in the last 35 tries in the past 10 h2h matches.
I think there is some value here in the Sharks tonight based on their recent away form and also the fact they have had success playing in Minnesota in the past year.
Only 1 time in the past 8 meetings has the total gone over 6 goals. As such, I would expect a low scoring, tight checking affair tonight, but think the Sharks will eek one out in the end. Given the Sharks have only lost 2 of 20 games in regulation, I will take the Sharks on the +0.5 handicap tonight.
The Pick :
San Jose Sharks +0.5
Gooner’s Statistical Value Bet
