Dallas took Games 1 and 2 at home, but Minnesota was able to get into the series when it shifted to Xcel Energy Center, earning a 5-3 victory Monday night.
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Pominville, playing on that thriving third line with Erik Haula and Nino Niederreiter, scored his third goal of the series by crashing the crease and knocking in Niederreiter’s fluttering rebound shot off his shin.
Jason Spezza scored the go-ahead goal off his skate with 70 seconds left in the period, and the Wild finished the second down 3-2.
Dallas got a power-play goal before the period was half over to tie the game, briefly.
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Jason Pominville had two goals and an assist and Minnesota roared back from an early two-goal deficit to slice Dallas’ lead in the Western Conference quarterfinals to 2-1.
The Wild took their first lead of the series in the final minute of the second period.
The Minnesota Wild (1-3) look to bounce back after losing 3-2 in Game 4.
The first goal for Dallas came at 9:11 of the second period when Hemsky found himself at the top of face-off circle and fired the puck past Devan Dubnyk, who was screened by Colton Sceviour, tying the game 1-1. First off, Seguin remained in Dallas while the rest of the team traveled to Minnesota and was ruled out for game three due to extra rehab.
Wild players, who struggled through 82 games with just 87 points heading into the playoffs, prepared for a Thursday trip to Texas with none of those thoughts but concentrating instead on just one thing: forcing Game 6. “We’re going to have all hands on deck”.
“We got to block that shot”, Torchetti said.
Another luxury is the Stars’ dominance on home ice.
Charlie Coyle scored an absolute beauty of a goal in Game 4. Stars RW Patrick Sharp has nine goals and 16 points in 18 career playoff games against the Wild. “We’re going to have to play a really good hockey game to beat that team, and we’re ready to do that”. There just didn’t seem to be any fight left in the Wild, and the series lacked the intensity that was there in every other series being played.
Antti Niemi made 28 saves in the win. Lehtonen posted a shutout in Game 1, but he wasn’t as sharp in Game 3, making the transition a natural one for Ruff. “We should probably be a little better in their start, but we didn’t let it get us down”.
“They came out pretty high and kind of back and forth in the third there”, Benn said.
As it was down the stretch of the regular season, the Niederreiter-Haula-Pominville line was the catalyst on both ends of the ice for the Wild, helping keep Stars leading scorer Jamie Benn in check while producing a total of seven points on the night.
The Wild could use an offensive boost from Thomas Vanek, but the forward is still day to day with an upper-body injury and sounds unlikely to play Friday.
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Barring a remarkable comeback, the Wild will fail to meet its stated goal of advancing past the second round of the playoffs.
