After blowing two-goal leads twice in the first five games of its series with Minnesota, Dallas almost found a way to one-up that.
This crossbar shot shows how close Minnesota came to tying Dallas. Photo from NHL PR Twitter
The Stars nearly blew a four-goal lead and had to withstand a late review on a puck that came very close to crossing the goal line to survive 5-4 and knock the Wild out the playoffs 4-2 in their Western Conference quarterfinal series. The Stars will play the winner of Monday’s game 7 between Chicago and St. Louis.
Alex Goligoski gets credit for the winner, but it was Devan Dubnyk who knocked the puck into his own net.
With the Stars’ lead cut from 4-0 to 4-3, Goligoski sent a wrist shot towards Dubnyk, taking a deflection off a Minnesota player, bouncing high into the air, and landing in the crease behind Dubnyk. As Wild forward Charlie Coyle dove to knock the puck away from the goal line, Dubnyk slid backwards on his pads and knocked the puck in.
The Stars’ stars did much of the damage to stake Dallas to its lead through 40 minutes. Jason Spezza had a goal and three assists and Jamie Benn had a goal and two assists. Patrick Sharp and John Klingberg got the other goals for Dallas.
It took until the 3:48 mark of the third period for Minnesota to get on the board when Jared Spurgeon blasted one past Kari Lehtonen on the power play. Only 16 seconds later, Jonas Brodin scored to make it a 4-2 game, and forced Dallas to take its time out.
Another Dallas penalty led to another Spurgeon power-goal to make it 4-3 and had the Xcel Energy Center rocking.
Less than two minutes later, Goligoski got his winner, but the Wild kept fighting.
Jason Pominville got his fourth goal in four games to make it a one-goal game again, setting up the frantic finish.
With Dubnyk out of the net, the WIld pushed for an equalizer and nearly got it with 33 seconds left.
Nino Niederrieter’s shot hit the bottom part of Lehtonen’s pad, with most of the puck crossing the goal line. Unfortunately for Minnesota, not all of it did, leading to the no-goal call being upheld.
Benn had 10 points in the six-game series, and Spezza had 9, good for the top two spots on the NHL’s playoff scoring list.
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