2 hours Ago By Jess Myers / St. Paul Pioneer Press
There was an air of confidence in the Minnesota Wild locker room on Saturday morning as they headed into the season’s first meeting with a Dallas team that had manhandled them last season. Despite three key players being out of the lineup, there was talk of how cool it would be to say they beat the mighty Stars even with a less-than-full roster. ADVERTISEMENT That indeed would have been a cool story.
Then there was an opening faceoff, and Dallas started doing Dallas things, including delivering a cold dose of reality. Despite a stellar effort by their goaltender, the Wild came up just short as the Stars skated away with a 2-1 win and improved to 6-0-1 in their last seven games with Minnesota. Kirill Kaprizov’s team-leading 11th goal of the season with under six minutes to play was the only opportunity the audience had to truly get loud, as the Wild lost at home in regulation for just the second time this season.
Try as he might, Filip Gustavsson’s 38 saves for the Wild just weren’t enough as Minnesota was nearly blanked for the first time this season. ADVERTISEMENT Stars goalie Jake Oettinger, the Lakeville kid who revels in his trips back to the State of Hockey, had 22 saves in the win. Defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin set up both Dallas goals.
The Wild found themselves in survival mode not long after rookie Mikey Milne completed his solo lap around the ice for warmups, as the Stars controlled the space in front of the Minnesota net early, and Miro Heiskanen clanked the goalpost on the game’s first power play. Perhaps sensing his team needed a spark, with the Stars getting the better of the play for much of the opening period, Wild defenseman Jake Middleton threw hands with Dallas defenseman Brendan Smith with just under eight minutes to play in the first. The results of the fight were inconclusive, and the Stars immediately went right back to testing Gustavsson, who had 14 saves in the opening 20 minutes.
ADVERTISEMENT A few minutes later it was Minnesota defenseman Zach Bogosian squaring off with Wild alumnus Matt Dumba, as the mutual dislike between these rosters was on full display. The Stars’ relentless offensive pressure finally paid off with 77 seconds to play in the opening period when a shot from the blue line made its way through a crowd in front of the Wild goalie and into the net. It was just the ninth opening-period goal allowed by Minnesota in 17 games this season.
Only Dallas, with eight, has allowed fewer. Minnesota got no help from its power play, as Dallas was able to ice the puck with regularity during four minutes of Wild man-advantage early in the second period. The difference-maker in keeping the Stars from running away with things in the first 30 minutes was Gustavsson, whose body of work included thwarting a Matt Duchene breakaway near the midway point of the game.
ADVERTISEMENT The Wild suffered some lousy luck in the second period as well, with Middleton’s slap shot catching the inside of the right goalpost and away, and Brock Faber winding up for a point blank shot only to have his composite stick snap in half. Minnesota made a strong push in the third, only to have Oettinger keep them at bay long enough for Dallas to double its lead and effectively end any drama left. Kaprizov tipped a Jared Spurgeon shot past Oettinger with 5:50 to play, but the Wild failed to find the equalizer despite Matt Boldy hitting the post with just over a minute to play and Gustavsson on the bench for an extra skater.
The Wild were without three regulars in their lineup, as defenseman Jonas Brodin missed his second consecutive game with an upper body ailment, forward Joel Eriksson Ek sat out with a lower body injury and forward Mats Zuccarello is out for 3-4 weeks with a lower body injury that required surgery. They next head out on a three-game road trip, which begins Tuesday in St. Louis.
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