The Dallas Stars will likely be without standout center Tyler Seguin again in Game 4 of their first-round playoff series against the Minnesota Wild. Game 5 will take place Friday on their home ice, and there are several storylines worth keeping an eye on until the puck drops. Stars RW Patrick Sharp has nine goals and 16 points in 18 career playoff games against the Wild. “We’ve got to win this game, because we don’t want to go back there”. Hey, you know what? “We’ve just got to go and win a game in their building”. “We have our backs against the wall”.
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The Stars grabbed a commanding three games to one lead in the series on Wednesday night in St. Paul, skating off with a 3-2 victory.
A win and another game before the home fans on Sunday would be a nice happening for the Wild.
Despite Wild’s valiant effort from Jason Pominville, who opened the scoring of Wednesday, Erik Haula and Charlie Coyle, they are sorely missing the added talent of Thomas Vanek. Then two minutes later Matt Dumba carelessly handled the puck off the glass for a delay of game penalty.
The team’s start looked like a continuation of Game 3.
The Dallas Stars bounced back from a loss behind a resurgent power play, leaving the top-seeded team in the Western Conference poised to advance to the next round of the playoffs. This led to a short-handed Wild team having a player out of position as Dallas brought the puck back into the offensive zone.
“I liked our game”. So why hand the Stars the man advantage?
So maybe Minnesota is due for a break or two in Game 5. Do you like Jamie Benn playing beside Jason Spezza more or beside Cody Eakin? They did the same thing against Washington last season, becoming the first National Hockey League team to overcome 3-1 deficits in consecutive seasons. It was by far the most entertaining game of the series, and provided a host of lessons for the Stars to pull from moving forward in the playoffs. The intensity of the battles between players has helped increase the overall tempo and passion of the Wild.
“We’ve got to focus on one game”, Pominville said.
– University of Minnesota women’s hockey stars Hannah Brandt and Amanda Kessel (sister of Penguins F Phil Kessel) led the crowd in the traditional “Let’s Play Hockey” cheer before Game 4. Demers tried to get under Haula’s skin, so he turned it around on him and got him off his game. Hard to believe that will change enough to see the Wild sweep the next three games. The Wild outshot the Stars 14 to 2 in the final frame.
As was the case so often in the regular season, the Dallas Stars found a way to make the best of a tough situation, and they are close to advancing in the postseason as a result. They were out-shot, out-chanced, out-attempted by the Stars.
They played so poorly in January and into February that coach Mike Yeo was sacked.
Minnesota has improved its penalty kill recently and needs to show similar form to mitigate the Dallas power play in Game 5. Considering deflections, screens, net charging, and rebounds have been a part of all of the Wild’s goals over the last two games they absolutely need to keep up the traffic in front.
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Now, they’re just one win away from moving on to the next round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. Well, they say it’s not for real until someone loses on home ice. “We have an opportunity to do something special and something that doesn’t happen all that often”.
