Staring down a 3-1 series deficit late in the third period, the Wild’s muscle — line cooked up something special. It was greasy, and it was just what the team needed.
With under six minutes to play in regulation, and trailing the Stars 2-1, things were starting to look bleak for Minnesota. Without a late equalizer, they were going to go to Dallas needing three straight wins to advance to the second round of the playoffs.
Then Marcus Foligno crawled over Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger to knock a stray puck over the goal line to tie the game, 2-2, with 5:20 left in regulation.
“You have to get production in different ways,” coach John Hynes noted.
Indeed, with Minnesota’s power play struggling, and Oettinger recovered from a 6-1 loss in the series opener, the Wild needed something different to solve the Stars’ Olympic gold medal-winning netminder. Something earned with brute force, with Oettinger on his rear end.
With top D pair Brock Faber and Quinn Hughes at the back end, the fourth line of Foligno, Michael McCarron and Nico Sturm went to work on the forecheck, looking to at least keep the Stars in their own end for a shift. Faber and Hughes kept the zone and pumped the back back down low, and eventually Sturm took a shot from the left circle.
Oettinger swatted it away with his blocker arm but so hard that it bounced off the back wall and behind him. That’s when Foligno used all of his 6-foot-3 reach and all of his 225 pounds to drape Oettinger and reach for a loose puck in the crease and swipe it over the goal line.
Does it count as net-front when you’re reaching around the post? No matter, the game was tied 2-2, and Matt Boldy won it in overtime — with 28.9 seconds left, when he deflected a shot from the point by Jared Spurgeon.
“It’s special when you’re a big guy out there and you’ve got Quinn and Fabes back there,” Foligno said. “You just get your place up front and they seem to find guys.”
It was Faber who handed off to Sturm as he curled around the circles. When he got to the far side of the right circle, Sturm fired a hard left-handed wrist shot on goal to start the sequence.
It was just the second start of this series for Sturm, signed as a free agent last summer only to be sidelined in training camp by a back injury that required surgery. General manager Bill Guerin signed him for size, a veteran presence and the experience of a player who had won Stanley Cups with Colorado and Florida.
“Sturmy was awesome tonight,” Foligno said. “I think he really gave us a shot in the arm a little bit with just the way he played.”
Foligno and McCarron have now each scored tying goals in this series, and now Sturm has an assist. As Hynes noted, that’s solid fourth-line production through four games. It also was a team answering the bell while facing a potential 3-1 series deficit.
On Wednesday, the Wild rallied from a two-goal deficit to force overtime, losing on Wyatt Johnston’s deflection deep into the second extra frame.
Now, it’s a three-game series with Game 5 set for Tuesday at American Airlines Arena. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. The Wild are working to survive the first round for the first time since 2015.
The Wild lost to Dallas in six games in 2023, Las Vegas in seven in 2024 and to the Golden Knights last season in six. But Foligno said there was no panic between the second and third periods.
“There’s a lot of belief in here,” the alternate captain said. “These are two unreal teams, and we’ve got to understand that they’re a heck of a hockey club and it’s going to take this type of effort every night against that squad.”
Asked if his team passed a test on Saturday, Hynes said, “I would say the last two games.”
“We’ve hit some adversity in the games, where they’ve had a lead,” he added. “I just think our mindset more is taking whatever the game’s giving us and coming out and playing and staying with it. I think we’ve done a good job of that. … We’re going over the boards, regardless of what the situation is or what happens, focused on playing how we need to play regardless.”
After breakout regular season, Matt Boldy bringing ‘big-man game’ to the playoffs