We like the Minnesota Wild to defeat the Utah Hockey Club on Tuesday at 9:37pm ET for a number of reasons. Here are some of the more important ones:

Minnesota have been terrific this season posting an 18-5-4 overall record -- 11-2-3 on the road.

The Wild have been the best defensive team in the NHL this season in terms of goals allowed per game. They allow just 2.33 a game.

A big part of their winning is because Minnesota stays out of the penalty box. They average nearly five less minutes in the box per game than Utah does.

The Wild are also 13-4 over their L17 games played against "Utah" (who were named Arizona during all of those games.)

Utah have been very average with a 12-11-4 record -- 4-5-2 at home.

The Hockey Club are also just 1-4 over their L5 games played against teams from the West (Central or Pacific.)

Like we talked about, Utah average a lot of PIM. They average the most penalty minutes out of any team in hockey.

We think that the Minnesota will be too much to handle tonight even with Utah on a two-game winning streak. We aren't opposed to taking the -1.5 at big plus money, but are very confident in them on the moneyline.

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