His game-winning goal with 46.3 seconds remaining in the second period gave Minnesota their first lead in their series against the Stars.
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The Dallas Stars can advance to the second round of the playoffs for the first time since 2008 with a win in Game 5 against the Minnesota Wild on Friday. And for a while, it seemed to take the Stars off their game.
Eaves tied the game again on another Dallas power play a few minutes later, deflecting a knee-high shot by Kris Russell past Dubnyk. It was Schroeder’s first career playoff goal. The same Stars we all wrote off after a calamitous Game 3 loss in Minnesota. With Goligoski hooking him and a delayed penalty upcoming, Coyle was still able to slip the puck around Niemi for his first goal of the playoffs. Vigneault is considering using D Raphael Diaz to add some punch to the power play. This led to a short-handed Wild team having a player out of position as Dallas brought the puck back into the offensive zone. They got pucks to the net, outshooting Dallas 30-22, and sent bodies crashing in after them.
By the time the first period was half-finished, the Stars had cast aside their sluggishness from the previous contest that saw them manage only 17 shots on net.
A delay of game on Matt Dumba and slashing on Nino Niederreiter turned into a pair of power-play goals, each one erasing a one-goal lead by the Wild.
Game 4 started on a similar note with the Wild seizing a 1-0 lead on a Jason Pominville second-period deflection and a 2-1 lead on Charley Coyle’s dazzling second-period breakaway.
Minnesota would pressure in the third as Dallas stopped trying to pressure. Since 2010, the eventual Stanley Cup winners have lost six, nine, four, seven, nine, and seven games respectively.
Coach Alain Vigneault said the most important thing for the coaching staff is to make sure the team has a short memory after consecutive bad performances and to narrow their focus and stay in the moment during games. Jason Pomnville said after the game. “They’ll play hard, but we have to prepare for that and be better”.
“Everyone always has character when you win”, he said.
The Wild have knocked off Central Division champs each of the past two years and if they hope to run that streak to three, they’ll have to be much better in Game 5.
“Our unit had a couple looks and there was great puck movement by the second power play unit, a great screen and a ideal shot by Hemsky”. The Wild drew the card of the top-seed Dallas Stars, with Minnesota now down 2-1.
Jason Pominville scored two goals in the victory, while Chris Porter, Erik Haula and captain Mikko Koivu each found the back of the net once. “We should probably be a little better in their start, but we didn’t let it get us down”. “Then you get a couple ugly ones and get momentum off of it”. Minnesota knows their backs are against the wall, a challenge that Ryan Suter welcomes. “We’re going to have all hands on deck”. “We just have to go and win a game in their building; that’s the bottom line”. We know that we can beat these guys.
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“They play for each other, and that’s why they’re a very successful line”, Torchetti said. Again, we put ourselves in a tough spot.
