Minnesota’s dormant arena had jolted awake, with two goals in a 16-second span by the previously slumbering Wild early in the third period.
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The Washington Capitals, Dallas Stars and New York Islanders all booked their place in the second round of the Stanley Cup play-offs with wins on Sunday. The Stars won 5-4 to advance to the second round. His coach Torchetti explained Spurgeon’s play best when he said after Game 5 “If I had another “A” he’d probably be wearing one”.
Jason Spezza powered the Stars to a series-clinching win in Game 6 with four points in their 5-4 triumph against the Wild on Sunday afternoon.
Koivu scored the last two goals for the Wild, who go home still down 3-2 in the best-of-seven series.
He pumped his fist after the game-winner Friday night, a deflection of a Suter shot from the point, and hugged teammates on the ice seconds after his goal extended the first-round series against the Western Conference top seed.
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.
The Wild’s play was too inconsistent to win this series, even though five of the games were close and came down to the final seconds.
The play was reviewed, and the call of no-goal was upheld. Nuness had an office right around the corner and kept kicking them out, he fondly recalled in a phone interview Thursday with The Associated Press. “It was a tough series, but we’re excited we’re moving on”. “But when we chase the game, we made the mistakes early”. The Stars captain added two assists in the contest to take over the playoff scoring lead with 10 points.
The Wild weren’t ready to pack it in, though, as they proved during the torrid 20 minutes that followed.
But the Wild forced overtime when Koivu went top shelf for the tying goal with 3:09 left in regulation. Washington Capitals at Philadelphia Flyers (A: -171, H: +156, O/U: 5)Capitals lead series 3-2With little margin for error, Michal Neuvirth has been almost ideal in helping his current team claw back in its first-round series against his former one.
Ultimately, though, the puck didn’t fully cross the goal line – so the Stars held on for their playoff advancement. He got very unlucky, but it’s hard not to blame him for that goal. Coyle lunged to try to keep it out, but the puck glanced off Dubnyk and in for a 5-3 lead with 9:32 remaining. Koivu failed to clear the puck out of the Wild zone, John Klingberg fired a pass into Jamie Benn who pulled a neat deke in tight, to beat a sprawling Devan Dubnyk, before he coolly slid the puck into the exposed net. What if it went in while the net was off its moorings?”I went back when he was playing and watched how he played”.”I just don’t know how it counts”, Dubnyk said. “That makes you feel sick to have to lose a game and a series on a bouncer like that”.
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Jason Pominville slammed in a rebound with 4:47 left, setting up the frantic final flurry. And yet, the Wild’s signature player lacked a signature moment. But inspirational play from the likes of Erik Haula, Nino Niederreiter and Mikko Koivu sometimes made up for that.
