In St Paul, Jake Oettinger made 23 saves, and the Dallas Stars defeated the Wild, 4-1, on Friday night.
“It was a really tough series and credit to [Minnesota coach Dean Evason] and the Wild,” Stars coach Peter DeBoer said. “I mean, that’s a really good team. …It was a [heck] of a test for us. I think [Dallas forward Joe Pavelski] going down early in that series rattled us a little bit, but I think I said yesterday or the day before that I felt we had kind of moved past that and were starting to really play well.
“Kind of Game 5, Game 6, I thought we were getting better as the series went on. So, we worked through some stuff against a really tough opponent and proud of our group.”
“I’m just trying to enjoy it and soak it all in,” Oettinger said. “Every opportunity I get, this is just a special one. When we got lined up with the Wild it was like, ‘Of course it works out that way.’ I just wanted to play my best and have fun and not let outside distractions or all the extra stuff that went on distract me. Our guys played their hearts out for me and I’m so happy for this group right now.”
The win gives the Stars a 4-2 first round series win.
Roope Hintz scored at 6:22 pf the first period to give the Stars a 1-0 lead.
The goal came after a miss from Minnesota’s Ryan Hartman.
“This city deserves better than what we gave them,” Hartman said. “The fans, they’ve shown up for us all year and we failed them. And it feels [bad]. There’s opportunities throughout this series where we could have not necessarily put the nail in the coffin, but we could have separated ourselves a little bit more, and we failed to capitalize on opportunities throughout the series.
“Game 4, Game 5, you can go to multiple games. Series aren’t won in those games, but we could have done a lot better putting the puck in the net.”
“Zing,” Dallas’ Tyler Seguin said. “That’s Roope. Zing.
“Playing with him, I’m kind of getting used to him honestly the last few games, remembering what [Pavelski] and [Robertson] do. Sometimes they go up and kind of come back to the puck, so you know he’s gaining speed. Guys like him, guys like (Colorado Avalanche center Nathan) MacKinnon, guys like (Edmonton Oilers center Connor) McDavid, they come back to the puck and you kind of lay it areas for him. Found him there early in the first, and what a play by him.”
Dallas’ Wyatt Johnston pushed the advantage to 2-0 at 13:37 of the middle frame.
“It was an awesome play,” Johnston said. “I think I just seen it once, and then a little spin-o-rama and kind of a blind pass to me. That was awesome.”
The Stars added one more in the second, when Mason Marchment hit for a 3-0 lead to the Stars with one second left in the period.
“I think it just says we can play any way,” Marchment said. “You want to play physical, you want to play skill, when we play our game, that’s the most important. We play our game, we’re hard to beat. So just keep sticking to the details and that’s all we can do.”
The Wild got on the board at 12:53 of the third period when Frederick Gaudreau trimmed the deficit to 3-1.
“Loved our start, loved our energy,” Evason said. “We couldn’t score again, and had an unbelievable chance. It just misses the pad and goes by the post. They come down and the first shot goes in the net. Our group does this [indicating a sag]. We come out flat in the second, and they push. But our group never quit.
“Obviously, we got a chance at the end. Pulled the goalie and maybe a penalty on [Minnesota forward Kirill Kaprizov] — an elbow, and it would have been nice [to get a power play], but it’s a tough call to see. We didn’t quit. We played hard. Their goalie was the best goalie in the series — the best player, period, in the series. We didn’t score, and we lose in six.”
Max Domi added an empty-net goal with 57 seconds left on the game clock for the 4-1 final.
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Filip Gustavsson made 23 saves, yielding three goals, through the second period. He got the hook in the second intermission.allowed three goals on 26 shots, and
Marc-Andre Fleury iced the third period and made six saves.
“It’s a fine line between winning and losing,” Fleury said. “For me to have been done in the first round too many times, it’s never easy. You always expect more from yourself or your team. The other team played well too. They try to win too, but it’s still disappointing not to move on.”
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