Dallas let game 5 slip away Tuesday night at home and now trail the Wild 3-2 in the series.
While it was not the immense struggle from game 1, there were shades of similarities. Dallas struggled to produce five-on-five play and let some unfortunate bounces turn into Minnesota scoring chances. Dallas has been in this position before, and has been able to pull off a win, and even go on to win the series. The Stars will try to replicate that as they head to Grand Casino Arena with their season on the line.
“We got a great group,” Jamie Benn said. “Like I said, we’ve been a great road team all year, so we’ll go up there and put in a hard 60 minutes, maybe more.”
Minnesota struck first when Mats Zuccarello, who missed the past three games after taking Tyler Myer’s elbow to his face, tapped in a rebound from Kirill Kaprizov’s shot. The play emerged after Myers’ attempt to clear his own zone was intercepted by Ryan Hartman.
Five minutes later, Bobby Brink headed to the penalty box after slashing Thomas Harley, giving Dallas a chance to respond to the Wild’s early lead. The Stars had great puck movement on the power play and capitalized when Miro Heiskanen sent a wrist shot from the point past Jesper Wallstedt to tie things up.
Over the next ten minutes, both teams had some quality chances, but nothing materialized until Minnesota went to the power play after Lian Bichsel got called for interference. Dallas began the power play strong, with a few important clears and big saves from Jake Oettinger, but eventually Matt Boldy poked the puck through.
The Stars challenged the goal for goaltender interference and the officials sided with them. With 11 seconds remaining, Dallas kept the score at an even 1-1.
The beginning of the second period saw a huge scoring opportunity for Dallas, when Wallstedt vacated the crease, but Mavrik Bourque could not control the puck in the mad scramble in front of the net.
After Joel Eriksson Ek tripped up Heiskanen, Dallas headed to another power play. In a big momentum stop, Minnesota managed to kill the Stars’ power play for the first time since game three.
Dallas was every bit as resilient when Myers’ interference penalty sent the Wild on a power play of their own. Oettinger looked sharp as he gloved down Eriksson’s Ek final shot of the man advantage. The Stars continued that momentum and won a lot of puck battles, but eventually a bench minor for too many men on the ice sent them back on the penalty kill.
Boldly scored with 32 seconds remaining, and this time, it counted. Dallas headed into the third period down 2-1, with only 11 shots on goal. Minnesota recorded 25.
“…You create opportunities for yourselves, as we talked about the last two days, and again, we thought we did create some opportunities for ourselves,” Head coach Glen Gulutzan said after the game. “Now we got to take that next step, and convert on some of them and hit the net on some of them, and create some of that residual — doesn’t go in and draws a penalty, you know, got to force them to defend a little bit…”
The third opened up with chances on both ends, but Minnesota ultimately pulled ahead. Michael McCarron collected a loose puck in Dallas’ zone and put it past Oettinger to give the Wild a 3-2 lead.
Dallas had a chance to respond soon after, when Oskar Bäck got tripped up by Jake Middleton, but could not convert. Wallstedt made some good saves, but the Stars also struggled to create quality chances.
Later, Jamie Benn and Ryan Hartman traded penalties, with the former going to the box for cross checking and the latter being sent away for unsportsmanlike conduct. The Stars emptied their net, but once again struggled. Dallas got a glimmer of hope when Jason Robertson put in a tough angle shot that bounced off of Jared Spurgeon, but with just three minutes left, could not come up with any more answers.
Kirill Kaprizov scored on Dallas’ empty net and put the final nail in the coffin. The Stars fell 4-2 and will head to Minnesota to take on the Wild on Thursday, with one team fighting to keep their season alive and the other fighting to advance to the second round.