I may be biased, but there is nothing in the sporting world better than playoff hockey. I’m not sure if I got chills from the temperature in the air or the massive, ground-shaking roar from the Wild fans in St. Paul, MN tonight, but it was something to behold. In their most important game in recent history, the Wild were looking to close out their first-round playoff series against the Dallas Stars.
The Wild, with a 3-2 lead in the series after winning in Dallas on Tuesday night with a 4-2, hard-fought victory, was without defenseman, Jonas Brodin who was out with a lower body injury suffered in Game Five.
Quinn Hughes got the Wild on the board when he moved in from the blue line and sniped a shot top shelf past a flailing Stars goalie, Jake Oettinger. Marcus Foligno and Nico Strum each recorded assists on the goal that came at 6:23 of the first period. The Wild had a golden chance later in the first with a two on one breakaway but give credit to Oettinger who came out from the crease to play the puck and blocked any hope of a shot.
It was a physical first period as Foligno leveled two Stars to the ice which drew massive cheers from the crowd. The pace in the first period wasn’t particularly fast, which I thought played into the Wild’s favor. Dallas seemed somewhat disinterested to start the game. The Wild, for the most part, seemed like they were content to play conservative to end the period. A good strategy, as long as they hold the lead. After the first twenty minutes, it was 1-0, good guys.
In the second period, the Wild gained the first power play of the game when Dallas was caught violating the cross-checking rule in the rules book, shame on them. Minnesota, however, failed to convert on the two-minute man advantage. Just a few minutes later, Yakov Trenin was called for interference, putting the dangerous Stars power play unit on the ice for the first time in the game. One minute and six seconds into the power play (7:01 into the period), Wyatt Johnston buried a tic-tac-toe pass into the back of the net to tie it at one goal per side.
Later in the second, Radek Faksa for Dallas later earned a two-minute break for holding. Once again, the Stars fought off some good scoring chances to successfully kill the power play. However, the Wild seemed to have gotten back into the game after seeming out-of-sync after Dallas tied the game. That was short-lived however, as Dallas added their second goal of the game when Mavrik Bourque waited for a sliding Jesper Wallstedt to move and then had a wide-open look at the net on the just above the crease. 2-1 Dallas.
Fifty-four seconds later, Vladimir Tarasenko answered from his knees with a back-handed shot with an assist from Quinn Hughes. This was Tarasenko’s 50th career playoff goal. That would complete the scoring for the second period and big surprise, Game Six would enter the third period with the score knotted up at two.
Twenty minutes (perhaps) to decide whether there would be a Game Seven or if the Wild would send Dallas back home with a big pile of nothing like they deserve. Just 29 seconds into the third, Joel Eriksson Ek fell and headed off the ice and down to the trainers’ room with, what appeared to be a lower-body injury (foot, ankle, something of that nature). He would return later in the game.
Dallas would be called for another penalty in the third as they were called for roughing after shoving a stick into the side of Kirill Kaprizov’s face. The power play was short-lived however, as Ryan Hartman would get called for slashing. On the abbreviated power play for Dallas, they registered no shots on goal and we were back to even strength hockey. Wallstedt made a tremendous save shortly thereafter on a cross-crease slider to rob Dallas of a goal at 9:35 of the third period.
Quinn Hughes added a second goal to put the Wild up 3-2 with assists from Mats Zuccarello and Brock Faber. The crowd was no longer sitting and the buzz was electric. Down to 4:05 remaining and as we paused for an ice scrape, the crowd had a collective exhale. Dallas emptied the net with three minutes left to play.
Matt Boldy would add two empty-net goals, and the party was on in Minnesota!! They will head to Denver to take of the Avalanche in the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. Obviously, another tough series awaits.
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