All seemed well for the Dallas Stars as we start the three-game sweep in St Paul Sunday night. But the Minnesota Wild ruined a solid game from the Stars by scoring six goals in the third period to win, 6-2.
“With the way we played the first half of the game, we asked the guys to invest in the 
game, knowing they had played back-to-backs,” Wild coach Mike Yeo said. “Make sure their [defense] has to go back and retrieve pucks, make them play lots of shifts in their own zone. I felt if we could have that mindset to start the third period, that would pay dividends.”
Zach Parise had two goals in the game and bookended the scoring for the Wild in the third.
“We got one early in the third, and I think we got a jolt of energy from that,” Parise said. “We just kept coming after that.”
After losing to Detroit the previous night, this was a collapse for the Stars that caused stomach acid.
“It was embarrassing,” Stars coach Lindy Ruff said. “We lost some battles, their determination was better than ours, and it led to goals. We had four guys in front of our net on one goal. That just can’t happen.”
Jason Spezza scored twice for Dallas and gave them a 1-0 lead in the second period; he had the first and last goals of the game.
“A back-to-back is no excuse,” Stars captain Jamie Benn said. “You got a 1-0 lead after two periods and come out in the third and lay an egg and give up six goals. It’s embarrassing. We let our goalie … we left him hanging tonight when he played a good game.”
Devan Dubnyk got the win with the 18 saves.
“When we’ve been playing as well as we are and winning the games we have, we just believe we can do it in here,” Dubnyk said. “We hadn’t been playing our best in the first two periods, and we knew if we upped our game just a little bit, we’d be OK. We upped our game a lot.”
In New York, the Rangers built a 3-0 lead and then watched it evaporate as the Columbus Blue Jackets rallied to force extra time and a talent portion in the game.
Rick Nash put an end to the rally with a goal in the skills competition to send the Rangers to the win.
The two points pushed the Rangers closer to the Islanders who lost Sunday to the Vancouver Canucks, 4-0.
“We’ve got the standings up in the dressing room so it’s hard not to see [where we stand],” Nash said. “We’re worried about ourselves, worried about our game and our process and our game plan.”
Martin St. Louis had two goals in regulation and a third in the first round of the shootout.
“It’s turning into playoff mode here; everyone is fighting,” Rangers captain Ryan McDonagh said. “For us, we know what makes us successful. It’s a matter of giving ourselves the best chance. This last stretch here, we’ve done a pretty good job of that.”
Cam Talbot had 27 saves through extra time and then made two stops in the talent portion of the game to earn his first shootout win.. Talbot is 6-1-2 since coming in for the injured Henrik Lundqvist.
“We had confidence in Cam and we had confidence in our system, McDonagh said. “There’s no question that [Lundqvist] is a big part of our success but with Cam there, he is just as calm and composed. He has been in the structure for a while so he understands how we want to play and he has good chemistry with us defensemen.”
Columbus was buoyed by the rally effort and can take that home to a quick homestand.
“You don’t usually like to trade chances like that [in the third period] but we did a great job on the penalty kill [early in overtime] and had opportunities to win,” Blue Jackets forward Brandon Dubinsky said. “I’m happy with the point, but obviously we wanted two. It’s been a tough stretch for us, having four games in four tough buildings. We got in real late [Sunday morning from Montreal] and I think we were a little bit fatigued. But we kept fighting; it says a lot about our character in this room.”
In Buffalo Sunday night, the Sabres had the wraps on the Nashville Predators until Mike Ribeiro scored for the Preds to force extra time.
With no outcome in overtime, the game was decided in the skills competition where Mike Santorelli and Filip Forsberg scored for Nashville and Carter Hutton stopped three of four shooters to get the win.
“For me, just try to stay in the moment,” Hutton said. “You don’t want to try and overthink it too much. It’s tough. Obviously, you’d like to see more shots and keep in a bigger rhythm, but at the same time I can only control what I can, so I just try to battle and stay focused.”
After a bitter loss to the Flyers in Philadelphia, the win was a good way to end the weekend.
“I think that the guys have done a good job of staying focused,” Nashville coach Peter Laviolette said. “If they lose a game, they’re usually not very happy about it and come back with a solid performance the next game.”
It was the Sabres fifth straight loss at home but the second in a row where they kept up with the competition.
“If you look at the shots at the beginning of the [first] period, we were like 4-1,” Buffalo coach Ted Nolan said. “Tyler missed a great chance. I thought we played pretty well. You can’t be disappointed [in] the outcome.”
Michal Neuvirth took the loss but was outstanding in facing 38 shots from the Predators.
“We were so close to [winning] the hockey game and [beating] the best team in the League, but we took way too many penalties, and they got one lucky bounce,” Neuvirth said. “It’s tough to swallow, but it’s definitely nice to get a point against a team like that.”
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