ST. PAUL, Minn. – Despite dominating the third period Wednesday night, a second period of poor discipline and penalty killing was the Minnesota Wild’s downfall Wednesday night in a 3-2 loss to the Dallas Stars.
The Stars lead the Western Conference quarterfinal series 3-1 and can close it out Friday night in Dallas. 
The Wild penalty kill had been great in the first three games of the series, allowing only one goal on 13 opportunities. But the Dallas power play woke up, scoring on both power play chances – both in the second period.
“I thought we shot the puck,” said Dallas coach Lindy Ruff. “They had been real good [on the penalty kill]. We went back to shooting the puck and getting a net-front presence.
Minnesota outshot Dallas 14-2 in the third and 30-22 for the game, but couldn’t cash in on any of their third period opportunities.
“We’ve done a real good job when we have the lead to stay away from the real high-quality [shots],” Ruff said. “You see the shots go up against, but you don’t get the quality because you don’t leave the middle of the ice very often.”
Minnesota pulled Devan Dubnyk for an extra skater with 2:40 left in the game, and then the Wild got 1:24 of 6-on-4 time when Antoine Roussel took a high-sticking penalty.
“We’ve gotta execute and get it done,” Minnesota interim coach John Torchetti said. “They got it done on their power play. We didn’t tonight.”
The last two Dallas goals were not aesthetically pleasing, but especially in the playoffs, they all count.
Dallas trailed 2-1 when Nino Niederreither went to the box for slashing. Kris Russell skated into the top of the left circle and wristed a shot towards Dubnyk. Patrick Eaves, skating by the top of the crease, redirected the puck past Dubnyk to tie the game up.
After tying the game, the Stars didn’t let Minnesota regain momentum, which gave them the opportunity to take the lead.
Jamie Benn carried into the Minnesota zone and found Demers coming over the line. His shot at Dubnyk hit the skate of Jason Spezza and beat Dubnyk with 1:09 left in the second.
“Sometimes you get good looks and you don’t score, sometimes you get a couple ugly one and get momentum off it,” Spezza said. “I just tried to drive the net. I gave [Demers] a call there. If it got to the stick it would have had a chance to put it in, too. It was a great pass.”
Ruff said pretty goals are hard to come by this time of year.
“You look at the goals that went in: A shot, redirect. The Spezza goal, there wasn’t anything pretty about it,” he said. “Both teams defend really well so it’s hard to get that edge inside.”
After a scoreless first period, the Wild got on the board thanks to their third line of Jason Pominville, Niederreiter and Erik Haula. Ryan Suter forced a Jamie Benn turnover in the Wild zone, and Jared Spurgeon one-timed a pass to break the wild out of the zone. Niederreiter found Haula coming into the Dallas zone late and he one-timed a shot on Antti Niemi. Niederreiter’s follow up effort hit Pominville’s skate and hit the back of the net.
Matt Dumba took Minnesota’s first penalty of the game, a delay of game after the puck went over the glass on a clearing attempt, and Dallas went to work.
The defense pair of Russell and Demers teed up Ales Hemsky at the top of the right circle, and his shot beat Devan Dubnyk, who was being screened by Colton Sceviour.
Only 63 seconds later, the Wild came back with a highlight-reel goal.
Charlie Coyle got the puck out of his own zone to Jason Zucker, who one-handed a pass back to Coyle as he broke behind Alex Gologoski and Johnny Oduya. Gologoski was being called for a hooking penalty as Coyle dragged him along, but Coyle made a great move in tight at the top of the crease and beat Niemi.
The decision to start Niemi payed off for Ruff, after going with Kari Lehtonen in the first three games, where the Finn had a 1.69 goals against average.
“We stayed with the program,” Ruff said. “We’ve used both of them, we’re comfortable using both of them. He gave us a great game.
Ruff wouldn’t say who was starting game 5.
“I’ve got two options again and that’s a great thing to have.”
Torchetti was looking forward to going into Dallas
“I’m not worried about us going there,” Torchetti said. “ I’m looking forward to it. I’m looking forward to seeing who’s going to step up. Everyone always has character when you win, but real character is revealed when you’re losing.”
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