On the other side of things Dallas has still been able to provide offense in this series despite Tyler Seguin only playing in game 2. They are alive and well, heading to a Game 6 in this quirky series and dragging the Dallas Stars kicking and screaming back to St. Paul. The penalty kill was strong for most of the game.
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Thomas Greiss finished with 41 saves in the teams’ second consecutive two-overtime game and third in the series to go past regulation.
Dallas eked out a 5-4 victory, with all the Wild’s goals coming in the third period. It’s the first time a team won a Stanley Cup playoff game with 11 shots since the Capitals beat Ottawa in 1998, and that total is the fewest shots for the Flyers history in the regular season and playoffs.
Outside of two premium chances by Nino Niederreiter late in the second, the big keeper was rarely tested through the first 40 minutes.
Two minutes remain in the craziest #MNWild game I’ve ever covered.
Since the death of Prince earlier this week, we’ve seen a number of tributes made by Minnesota teams to honor the musician. Minnesota’s Kyle Gibson lasted just three innings, giving up seven runs on seven hits at Nationals Park.
As tributes to Prince continue to pour in from all corners of the world, it should come as no surprise that the Minnesota Wild stepped up to pay homage to the musician who passed away on Thursday.
But that didn’t happen, and now we’re here talking about a loss that saw the Wild eliminated. “But when we chase the game, we made the mistakes early”.
Devan Dubnyk has not played his best in this series either. “I guess that’s why you throw pucks to the net”.
It took five games, a couple of changes of venue and expectation whiplash to earn a bona fide postseason drama. It was however the visiting Stars who struck first with John Klingberg converting a powerplay chance at 05:56. The Wild dropped their final five games of the season and were white washed in the opening playoff game in Dallas 4-0. “In that third period I couldn’t even talk on the bench”. Wild Game Operations picked the right part of the song too as the chorus, “Let’s go insane, let’s get nuts…” leads right into the guitar solo. That’s not sustained pressure, and really all the Stars needed to do is what they did … hold them off for 20 out of 60 minutes. They have gotten themselves up off of the mat when all seemed lost and no one believed except those within the organization.
The main reason Game 1 was so abysmal was because three of the four Dallas goals were the results of Minnesota turnovers. After the game, there was a sense of pride in the Wild locker room for fighting back to make a game of it but also disappointment for not finishing the job.
With the period winding down, Patrick Sharp and Jamie Benn broke in on the Wild defence.
One area that the Wild were rock solid in for nearly 98 percent of the series was in the faceoff circle.
Mikko Koivu and the Minnesota Wild are going home and hoping for another trip to Dallas. In Game 6, the Wild won the face-off battle 14-10 in the first period with another solid showing at the faceoff dots, despite awful showings elsewhere.
The Stars allowed six or more goals a league-leading nine times this season.
“It’s insane, ” Wild center Charlie Coyle said.
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Hard to stomach that something so good for the Wild in the rest of the series, contributed so largely to their demise in Game 6.
