Shutout the Minnesota Wild, get sent back to the AHL. Such is the life of an NHL/AHL goaltender like Matt Murray. After withstanding a barrage of shots to start the game, the Dallas Stars took care of Murray in a game that ended with his first NHL shutout.
Jake Oettinger is close to being back, but he is not yet to the point where he can back up Scott Wedgewood. If you followed the Dallas Stars last year, you might remember the saga of the Freddies (Olofsson and Karlstrom), whose spirits – but not bodies – made the trek from Dallas to Cedar Park in paper transactions meant to accrue a modicum of Cap Space relief.
Murray has not had much of a chance in this three weeks with the NHL club, but he’ took’s taken advantage of the opportunity. To be honest, so has Remi Poirier in Cedar Park, where he is 5-3-0 while Murray has been in Dallas. Behind Oettinger and Wedgewood, the Stars are young in net, but nothing since Oettinger went down indicates that the organizations depth in net is lacking.
But enough bookkeeping. The Wild are playing the Stars in game two of a away-home back to back. The teams only play three games this season, so this is it for the regular season. Dallas put the hurt on the Wild in both games in Minnesota, so you might expect the team to up the physicality (you’d kind of expected that on Monday night, but the Tyler Seguin goal that gave the Stars a two goal lead in the third period seemed to pop the bubble on the Wild’s competitiveness for the night).
Dallas Stars Lineup
Jason Robertson (21) – Roope Hintz (24) – Joe Pavelski (16)
Mason Marchment (27) – Matt Duchene (95) – Tyler Seguin (91)
Jamie Benn (14) – Wyatt Johnston (53) – Evgenii Dadonov (63)
Craig Smith (15) – Radek Faksa (12) – Sam Steel (18)
Ryan Suter (20) – Nils Lundkvist (5)
Esa Lindell (23) – Jani Hakanpää (2)
Thomas Harley (55) – Joel Hanley (44)
Scott Wedgewood (41)
Matt Murray (32)
Minnesota Wild Lineup
Matthew Boldy (12) – Marco Rossi (23) – Mats Zuccarello (36)
Marcus Johansson (90) – Joel Erisson Ek (14) – Ryan Hartman (38)
Marcus Foligno (17) – Frederick Gaudreau (89) – Patrick Maroon (20)
Brandon Duhaime (21) – Connor Dewar (26) – Adam Raska (51)
Jake Middleton (5) – Brock Faber (7)
Daemon Hunt (48) – Zach Bogosian (24)
Jon Merrill (4) – Dakota Mermis (6)
Jesper Wallstedt (30)
Marc-Andre Fleury (29)
Hard to believe, but even if the Wild bring Alex Goligoski back into the lineup, the team will ice six defenders who collectively make less than Miro Heiskanen. Middleton and Faber have performed admirably as a second pair getting first pair matchups and minutes.
The forward group is missing Kirill Kaprizov, but that doesn’t explain why the team can’t score against Dallas. At some point, the goon factor might return – it didn’t during the third period on Monday, but the team overall deflated after Fleury botched Seguin’s wrister that found itself just over the goal line.
Fleury hasn’t been great against Dallas in two matchups, so Wallstedt gets the nod for his NHL debut. The 21 year old, first round draft pick has been one of the few bright points for the Iowa Wild this season, and with the way Dallas traditionally handles new goaltenders, it’s probably worth a try.
Adding insult to injury, it seems like there is a bug making its rounds through the Wild locker room.
Keys to the Game
Debut. Two days after Matt Murray made his first NHL start of the season, don’t get goalied in a first NHL game by Wallstedt.
Physicality. The Wild aren’t the thugs they were under ex-coach Dean Evason, but its still the same players. The more talented Stars can’t get caught up in a slug fest.
Special Teams. Dallas has won the first two games in this series by winning the PK/PP battle. How the team is doing it – short handed goals – is not particularly sustainable. It might be time to think about not traipsing to the penalty box.