Goaltenders Ben Bishop and Darcy Kuemper to Do Battle Tonight in Minnesota

It looks as if the goaltending matchup has been decided for tonight as the Tampa Bay Lightning travel to the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul to face off with the Minnesota Wild. It looks as if Lightning goaltender, and resident brick wall, Ben Bishop will suit up to do battle with Wild goaltender Darcy Kuemper.

Bishop’s start was confirmed earlier this afternoon by Tampa Bay Lightning Beat Reporter Missy Zielinski on Twitter. Kuemper’s start was confirmed on Twitter by Michael Russo of the Star Tribune.

There are a lot of similarities between these two teams. Their team stats are almost the same, their win records are not much different from each other; at the end of the day, this could very well come down to a battle of the goaltenders.

With Minnesota Wild goaltender Josh Harding on Injured Reserve, the team will be looking heavily on Kuemper as well as goaltender Niklas Backstrom to fill the void.

So far this season, Kuemper has suited up for 13 games with the Minnesota Wild. In that time, he has gone 6-3-2 with a Goals Allowed Average of 2.63 and a Save Percentage of .913.

Tonight, he will face the Tampa Bay Lightning’s resident brick wall Ben Bishop.

So far this season, the 6’7”, 214 pound goaltender has suited up for 41 games with the Tampa Bay Lightning. In that span, he has gone 27-7-4 with a Goals Allowed Average of 1.98 and a Save Percentage of .933.

Bishop continues to find himself among the league’s leaders in all goaltending categories. He is third in GAA, only surpassed by New Jersey Devils goaltender Cory Schneider and the Wild’s Josh Harding. He also finds himself in second in Save Percentage, with only Edmonton Oilers goalie Ben Scrivens in front of him, and fourth in wins with 27.

This is going to be an interesting game between both of these teams. Both of them want to come out with the two points, but unfortunately, in the end there can be only one.