Wild show the heart of a champion in crucial Game 4 comeback win originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Halfway through the third period, it looked as though the Minnesota Wild were about to leave Grand Casino Arena trailing three games to one in their best-of-seven series against the Dallas Stars.
And they would have had nobody to blame but themselves.
There were missed chances on open nets, squandered opportunities around the crease, and two costly penalties that both ended with Dallas power-play goals. Every mistake felt magnified. Every lapse was punished. It was the hockey equivalent of a championship fight in the late rounds—one side running low on energy, the other somehow finding another burst and continuing to land clean shots.
We were prepared to write about how Minnesota had played itself into a corner. Instead of being tied in the series—or perhaps even leading it—the Wild appeared destined to stare elimination directly in the face.
Then, with 5:20 remaining in regulation, everything changed.
Marcus Foligno dragged Minnesota even at 2-2, gathering his own rebound while tumbling over Jake Oettinger near the left post and somehow backhanding the puck into the net. In an instant, dread gave way to belief.
What made the sequence even more remarkable was what happened moments earlier.
Matt Boldy nearly authored one of the strangest goals of the post-season when he tried to front-kick a loose puck past Oettinger, looking more like an Olympic Taekwondo finalist than an NHL winger. The puck crossed the line, but the referee waved it off immediately.
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Still, Boldy deserved credit for the audacity alone. Great players often find themselves searching for solutions others would never attempt, and Boldy was clearly willing to explore every possible one.
The Wild, despite being outplayed for much of the night, were refusing to accept the script written for them.
Minnesota was just 29 seconds away from a second straight double-overtime game. That was the path on Wednesday, when Dallas escaped with a 4-3 victory to seize a 2-1 series lead.
As Joel Eriksson Ek created havoc at the top of the crease—jostling with Tyler Myers, drawing attention, making life miserable for everyone in front—captain Jared Spurgeon stepped into a wrist shot from the point.
His redirection found the net, and with it came one of those playoff moments that can alter an entire series. What was shaping up to be a somber story became a scene of eruption, resilience, and release.
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The Wild were not the better team for long stretches of the game. They were outskated at times, out-executed at others, and repeatedly frustrated by missed opportunities, including sequences where Oettinger was out of position and vulnerable.
They kept shooting. They kept forechecking. They kept believing.
They played with fire all night and looked destined to be burned by it. Instead, they reached into their back pocket and pulled out the extinguisher.
Many predicted this series would go seven games. For portions of this night, it felt possible it might end in five.