The Minnesota Wild may lose on occasion this season but they bounce back.
“Tonight it was goaltending,” Wild head coach Bruce Boudreau said. “I think for the most part it’s the desire to win. We put ourselves in a good position and we want to
continue to stay in that position. There is a really good profound desire to succeed.”
On Thursday, the Wild rode a 34-save effort from Darcy Kuemper to a 3-1 win over the Dallas Stars.
“It’s nice when you get a few glove saves early, it gets you in a rhythm,” Kuemper said. “I was fortunate that that happened. I felt pretty good.”
The loss dropped Dallas back to 22-27-10 and are on a inopportune skid late in the season having lost seven of eight games.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever been through a stretch like this,” Dallas head coach Lindy Ruff said. “This stretch has been incredible. I feel that first period [tonight] was puck possession and [we] did a great job in all areas, really, and you come away with nothing again. I know there’s frustration there. I’m asking them to go out and work, do the job, and the bounces aren’t going our way.”
The Wild are now 38-13-6 and their resilience after a loss is staggering with a record of 14-3-2 following a loss.
Ryan Suter scored with less than a second left on the clock in the opening period and Erik Haula increased the lead to 2-0 in the second period.
Cody Eakin scored early in the final frame to cut the Dallas deficit to 2-1.
“It comes down to road scoring again. I think we’ve played a pretty solid game at [the Winnipeg Jets, a 5-2 loss Tuesday], and we played a solid game tonight,” Ruff said of the limited offense.
Jared Spurgeon made it 3-1 at 13:04 of the third.
WATCH: All Stars vs. Wild highlights
Kari Lehtonen made 23 saves to take the loss.

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