For much of the Wild’s resurgence since the mid-February firing of coach Mike Yeo, the line of Erik Haula, Jason Pominville and Nino Niederreiter were the trio that sparked the team’s run to the playoffs. In Monday’s must win game 3 in their series with Dallas, the line sparked the team again.
The trio combined for three goals, four assists, 10 shots on goal and five hits in the Wild’s 5-3 win over the Stars in St. Paul to cut the Dallas lead to 2-1. Game 4 is Wednesday night.
Even with the win, the game was not without its challenges. The Wild were down 2-0 less than four minutes into the game thanks to two Patrick Sharp goals.
Chris Porter got the Wild into the game, redirecting a pass beyond Dallas goalie Kari Lehtonen to cut the deficit after the first period.
At 6:14 of the second period, Haula redirected a Pominville shot past Lehtonen to tie the game.
Late in the second, Niederreiter beat his man down the right wing, driving hard to the net past John Kilngberg and, while his shot was saved, Pominville crashed the net to bury the rebound. The lead was the first Minnesota had in a playoff game since Game 6 of the first round in 2015, nearly 400 minutes of play according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune’s Michael Russo.
In the third period, Jamie Benn took a holding penalty and it only took the WIld power play 31 seconds to make the Stars pay.
Mikko Koivu acrobatically redirected a Jared Spurgeon shot from the blue line that Lehtonen saved, but Koivu dug out the rebound and slid a backhand by Lehtonen for a two goal lead.
Dallas made sure their was plenty of drama to end the game. The Stars got within one goal when Jason Demers’ shot hit the glove of Wild forward Zac Dalpe, which hit Dallas forward Colton Sceivour in the chest and in past Devan Dubnyk.
Dallas pulled Lehtonen for the extra skater, but it was Pominville who capitalized to send the Wild fans home happy.
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