Jason Spezza scored his fourth goal of the series and added three assists, and goalie Kari Lehtonen and the Stars needed every last one of them to hold off the Wild 5-4 on Sunday and wrap up the first-round series in six games.
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Patrick Sharp spent 10 seasons with the Chicago Blackhawks before being traded to the Dallas Star and he spent much of that time playing with his good friend Patrick Kane, which is why Sharp felt it was appropriate to channel his ex-teammates signature goal celebration after he scored a big goal against the Minnesota Wild Sunday night.
Dallas had a 4-0 lead in Game 6, watched that shrink to 5-4 in the third period, and then had to hold on while National Hockey League officials in Toronto tried to determine if Nino Niederreiter’s shot with 33.9 seconds remaining was completely over the goal line.
The Wild forced overtime when Koivu went top shelf for the tying goal.
John Klingberg, Jamie Benn and Alex Goligoski also scored for the Stars, who next face the victor of the Blues-Blackhawks series – which will be determined when they play Monday night in St. Louis.
In the Wild’s 5-4 loss in Game 6 that ended their season, Zucker missed the team’s best chance to tie the game and finished with a minus-3 rating. He’ll have to face down a screaming horde urging their unlikely heroes on to a game seven this evening.
The most notable has been from Mikko Koivu.
After the Wild were denied on an early power play, they suddenly found themselves defending a 5-on-3 situation against that risky Dallas attack. “It doesn’t feel right to lose the game on a goal like that”.
“Leadership pulled us through”, said Torchetti.
The Stars could have withered away early in Game 5, as the Wild grabbed an early 2-0 lead 5 1/2 minutes into it.
About 13 seconds later, Dallas’ Jason Spezza beat Coyle on a faceoff in the Minnesota zone and got the puck back to Alex Goligoski at the point. The Stars weren’t done when Sharp sniped a shot over down Marco Scandella, and over the blocker of Dubynk on a 3-on-2 rush.
“It’s a tough building to play in”, Goligoski said of Game 6, “and we have just got to be real solid and not force things”.
After a scoreless, sometimes lethargic second period, the third period started with Minnesota up 2-1. Jamie Benn almost scored on a great feed through the crease, but like most of the night, was left spinning in circles wondering if he missed any deductions on his taxes. “We will work to use the crowd and work hard to give them a good game in Game 6”, Wild netminder Devan Dubnyk said.
The Wild are in one of the toughest positions to be in.
Jason Pominville brought the team back within one, when Jonas Brodin’s shot was deflected, hit him, and laid down next to the crease for the tuck in. You score four, you should probably win the hockey game. “We made one with about three minutes left that hurt us”, Stars coach Lindy Ruff said. Forward Jordan Schroeder made his series debut in Game 5 and scored.
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NOTES: The Wild scratched LW Ryan Carter, C Zac Dalpe, C Grayson Downing, D Christian Folin, RW Justin Fontaine, C Tyler Graovac, G Steve Michalek, RW Zack Mitchell, D Zach Palmquist, LW Zach Parise (back), D Mike Reilly, D Tyson Strachan, LW Thomas Vanek (upper body) and D Hunter Warner.
