In St Paul Wednesday night Alex Stalock made 24 saves to help the Minnesota Wild to a 4-2 win over the visiting Dallas Stars.
Mikael Granlund scored to the game-winner in the middle frame on the power play.
“We defended well and [Stalock] was there when he needed to be,” Granlund said. 
“That was the key for success tonight.”
Dallas took a 1-0 lead midway through the opening period when Tyler Seguin scored but the Wild responded late with a goal from Jared Spurgeon with less than a minute left in the period.
“We had a lot of momentum when we took the (three-day Christmas) break,” Stars head coach Ken Hitchcock said. “Obviously with the show tonight, we’ve lost the momentum. So it’s on us to get it back. … We were playing very good hockey. Whether this is a one-off or not, we’ll see. But this was exactly the way we played earlier where you’re just hoping to win.”
The two teams traded goals again in the second period when the Wild took the lead on a goal from Eric Staal but the Stars replied with a strike from Mattias Janmark on the power play before Granlund scored the game-winner.
“It’s a really good way to start the week and after the little break,” Granlund said. “Now we try and move on, we have two really tough games (against the Nashville Predators) this weekend. Let’s keep it going.”
Jason Zucker added an empty net goal in the third.
“I didn’t want to talk about it being a huge game, but it was a huge game. We called it the start of the second half. You get a chance to reset,” Wild head coach Bruce Boudreau said after the game. “I likened it this morning to a game of golf where we played the first nine holes and probably aren’t as happy as we’d like to be but we can always make it up by having a great back nine.”
The win snapped a two-game skid for the Wild as they improved to 19-15-3.
[WATCH: All Stars vs. Wild highlights]
Ben Bishop made 27 saves in the loss.
“It was our poorest effort by a mile. We were light everywhere; light on the puck, light around our net, light around their net. This looked like the way we played a month and a half ago,” Hitchcock said.
The Stars’ record fell to 20-15-3 with the loss.
“It should have been pretty even. I mean, I know we were up pretty early today, but as far as legs and emotion and intensity it should have been the same. But they brought it tonight and we just didn’t seem to have it,” Seguin said.
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