The Minnesota Wild can enter the Olympic break on a five-game heater, but first they must defeat the Predators in Nashville on Wednesday night.

This will be the third game of the season between these Central Division rivals. The two previous games were determined in overtime, but Minnesota should be surging with confidence after winning four straight.

On Monday, the Wild coughed up a 2-0 lead against the Montreal Canadiens to find themselves in a 3-2 third-period hole. Brock Faber tied the game up 3-3 before regulation expired, and Kirill Kaprizov scored a game-winning power-play goal with 1:22 left in overtime.

“We didn’t get deterred,” Wild head coach John Hynes said. “It was good to see the response after we had a little adversity, where we had a couple of letdowns to end the second (period). The third (goal) in the beginning, I thought it was a fluky goal. I know it was tipped out in front, but I really liked our response.”

Kaprizov scored twice on Monday night, while Quinn Hughes added three assists to extend his personal point streak to nine games (two goals, 14 assists) and reach 400 assists in his NHL career.

“When you’ve got two superstars like that passing each other the puck, they just play at a different level,” Faber said of Kaprizov and Hughes. “They think at a different level. You know, there’s a reason they’ve clicked so much. They’re kind of on the same wavelength.”

The Predators have also been in some close games, including two straight one-goal victories ahead of Wednesday’s matchup. Following a 4-3 result at the New York Islanders over the weekend, they earned a rowdy 6-5 win against the St. Louis Blues on Monday.

In that game, the Predators found themselves in a 5-1 hole halfway through the second frame and had to rally for two goals before the intermission. Ryan O’Reilly got an early third-period goal to close the gap to 5-4, and Steven Stamkos scored twice to secure the Predators’ come-from-behind victory.

Justus Annunen made 13 saves on as many shots in relief of Juuse Saros, who surrendered all five of St. Louis’ goals.

“It was one of those games where everything is going the wrong way, but that’s why sports are so amazing, because you never know what is going to happen,” Stamkos said. “You either pack it in as a group, or you say ‘Screw it’ and go out there and try to make a difference. The guys made a difference (Monday), and it wasn’t the same guys all night. It was different guys.”

Predators coach Andrew Brunette added, “There are certain guys who get going, and they’re grabbing momentum for our group, and you can tell it’s on its way. You just kind of keep riding (the momentum) a little bit. I think we taxed a lot of guys (Monday), but these are crucial points. This is a crucial week for us.”

The Wild beat the Predators on Nov. 4 when Marcus Johansson scored the overtime winner. Nashville exacted some revenge Dec. 23, with Stamkos scoring less than a minute into overtime.

–Field Level Media

Alabama has hit a roadblock which coincidentally accompanies its controversial roster decision.

Since Charles Bediako’s much-criticized return nearly three years after he left the program for the NBA, the Crimson Tide have lost two of their last three games.

That has Alabama (14-7, 4-4 Southeastern Conference) outside the AP Top 25 for the first time this season entering Wednesday’s matchup against Texas A&M in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

Bediako has been far from the problem, averaging 11.0 points and 5.3 rebounds and shooting 73.3% from the floor in his first three games back in the college ranks.

Defense and ball security are far bigger culprits in the team’s recent struggles. The Crimson Tide are coming off a 100-77 loss at then-No. 19 Florida on Saturday in which they turned it over 18 times and allowed a gaudy 72 points in the paint.

Alabama’s up-tempo offense has the team third in the SEC in scoring offense (91.2 points per game), but it is undeniably playing a role in the Crimson Tide bringing up the SEC rear in scoring defense (82.3).

The team is a No. 5 seed in ESPN’s updated bracketology released Tuesday morning.

“It’s getting close to a tipping point,” Oats said. “We’re either going to start playing better and go on a run here, or we’re going to continue to play .500 basketball. That’s not what anybody came here to do.”

Things don’t appear to be getting any easier this week with a smoldering Texas A&M team coming to town.

Since a 2-2 start, the Aggies (17-4, 7-1) have won 15 of their last 17, including 10 of the last 11 after a 92-77 win at Georgia on Saturday.

In a battle of the league’s two highest-scoring offenses, Texas A&M jumped out to a 22-2 lead and led the rest of the way.

Rashaun Agee led the Aggies’ 46-39 rebounding advantage with a game-high 18 points and 15 boards for his 10th double-double of the season and his fifth in eight conference games.

Agee ranks second in the league in rebounds (9.0 per game).

Despite this extended run of success, Texas A&M enters the week as the first team out of the Top 25. That’s only serving as further motivation.

“I hope so,” Agee said when asked if the team has made believers out of everyone yet. “If not, it’s OK. We’ve got a lot of basketball left. We’re just going to continue to do what we do regardless.”

–Field Level Media

Surging Georgetown hosts Creighton on Wednesday night in Washington, looking to match its longest Big East regular-season winning streak in over a decade.

As recently as two weeks ago, the Hoyas (12-10, 4-7 Big East) were looking up at everyone else in the league standings after a seventh consecutive conference loss in what was beginning to look like a lost campaign in Year 3 under coach Ed Cooley.

Since then, Georgetown has flipped the script and rattled off three straight wins — at Providence, vs. DePaul and most recently at Butler — to join a crowded group of four schools tied for sixth place heading into this week’s Big East games.

Georgetown last won four straight Big East regular-season games in 2015. That was also the last time the Hoyas earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament under John Thompson III.

So what’s been the difference in the Hoyas’ midseason turnaround?

Cooley thinks the return of big man Vince Iwuchukwu, who missed 10 games due to a medical procedure, has changed his team for the good.

“Having Vince (Iwuchukwu) back in the lineup for a period of time has really helped us,” Cooley said.

The 7-foot-1 senior transfer from St. John’s is third on the team in scoring at 10.8 points per game behind guards KJ Lewis (14.9) and Malik Mack (13.9).

“I wasn’t coming here to score,” Iwuchukwu explained.

“I came here to play defense, protect the rim make sure that guys can play defense to the best of their abilities.”

Despite his intentions, Iwuchukwu has come on during this three-game run by averaging 14.7 points and has expanded his game by making 3 of 3 3-pointers. Iwuchukwu had missed his previous eight attempts in his collegiate career, including four this season.

In the first meeting on Jan. 13, Creighton (12-10, 6-5) outlasted Georgetown 86-83 in overtime behind Austin Swartz’s career-high 33 points.

Since then, the Bluejays have struggled by losing three of four while Swartz has scored a combined 44 points in that stretch after his outburst against the Hoyas that included eight 3-pointers.

With a NET ranking of 76 on Feb. 2, Creighton is in jeopardy of missing the NCAA Tournament after five straight bids that includes three trips into the second weekend.

“You just keep working. That’s all you can do,” Creighton coach Greg McDermott said after then-No. 2 UConn trounced the Bluejays 85-58. “As I told them, you want the goal to be as a teammate, what can I do to make my teammates’ job easier? … We just need to take another step with that.”

–Field Level Media