DALLAS — The optimist will note that the Minnesota Wild are coming home having captured home ice advantage in their best-of-seven, first-round series with the Dallas Stars. The pessimist will point to a late Monday night in Dallas, where the visitors tried to take control of the series and came up just short.
In Game 2, the Wild failed to convert on a quartet of power play chances, while giving up a man advantage goal that proved to be costly in a 4-2 Stars win that sends the series back to Minnesota tied 1-1.
Game 3 is Wednesday night in St. Paul, with the start time officially listed as 8:30 p.m. at Grand Casino Arena.
Brock Faber scored two goals for the Wild, who got a 28-save night from Jesper Wallstedt. The rookie netminder was outdueled by veteran Dallas goalie Jake Oettinger, who finished with 28 saves and robbed the Wild of two high-danger chances to take the lead in the opening period.
The game was less than five minutes old when Kirill Kaprizov caught an errant high stick to the face, giving Minnesota the first power play of the night. Dallas killed the man advantage, allowing just one shot on goal.
After Oettinger stopped a point-blank chance by Danila Yurov — alone in front of the net — the Stars raced back the other way and took their first lead of the series on an unfortunate bounce. Wyatt Johnston’s shot went wide of the net, but the puck caromed off the end boards, hit Wallstedt and deflected into the net.
It didn’t take Minnesota long to find the equalizer, as Faber grabbed a loose puck in the offensive zone and made a deft move to the top of the crease, where he beat Oettinger on the stick side for his first career playoff goal.
With the teams skating 4-on-4 a minute later, Oettinger made a sprawling glove save on Matt Boldy backhander to keep the game tied.
The action came to a halt with 5:13 left in the opening period when Yakov Trenin was leveled by a clean but hard hit from Stars winger Colin Blackwell at center ice. Trenin, who led the NHL in hits this season, lay motionless on the ice for a time, bleeding from the nose. He was helped off the rink by the Minnesota trainers and did not return to the game due to an upper body injury.
Before the period was over, Oettinger flashed his glove hand again, thwarting a Boldy breakaway.
The Stars took another lead in the second, cashing in on their first power play of the game. Then the final five seconds of the middle frame got heated, with Wild forward Marcus Foligno and Dallas defender Thomas Harley’s collision in front of the Minnesota bench touching off a skirmish, and ending with the Stars on a power play to start the third.
The Wild killed the penalty, and successfully challenged a delay of game call that would have given Dallas another power play, including two seconds with a 5-on-3 advantage.
After Jason Robertson tipped a puck in front of Wallstedt to give the Stars a 3-1 lead, Faber answered with a shot through traffic to again make it a one-goal game. The goal came just seconds after Oettinger robbed Quinn Hughes with a sprawling save.
With 3:44 to play, Dallas took a too-many-men penalty, but again the Stars held firm on the penalty kill. Then the Wild were called for too many men with 81 seconds left in regulation and the Stars got an empty net goal in the final minute to seal it.
While coach John Hynes anticipated the same lineup at Game 1, there was some last minute juggling with Mats Zuccarello unavailable due to an upper body injury. Most notably, that meant Bobby Brink making his Wild playoff debut on the third line, and Vladimir Tarasenko taking Zuccarello’s spot on the top line with Ryan Hartman and Kaprizov.
Zuccarello missed the first 14 games of the regular season, and five more in December, due to injury. He had skated with the team on Monday afternoon but was unable to play come game time. He took an elbow to the head from Dallas defenseman Tyler Myers early in Game 1, which led to the Wild’s first power play goal in a 6-1 victory. Zuccarello had three assists.
Game 5 of the series, back in Dallas, will be played on Tuesday, April 28, at a time to be announced.
With the Iowa Wild playing their final game of the season on Saturday (a 6-1 home loss to Manitoba) the parent NHL club recalled eight players from their AHL affiliate. Added to the Minnesota playoff roster were forwards Nicolas Aube-Kubel, Hunter Haight and Ben Jones, defensemen Carson Lambos and David Spacek, and goaltenders Riley Mercer and Chase Wutzke. In their first season under head coach Greg Cronin, the Iowa Wild finished 27-36-6-3 and sixth in the seven-team Central Division.
Playoff chess match on ice developing between Wild and Stars
Meet the diehard Wild fan keeping the ‘X’ alive in his front yard