In St Paul, Filip Gustavsson made 23 saves and the Minnesota Wild downed the Dallas Stars, 5-1, on Friday.
The win give the Wild a 2-1 series lead with Game 4 in St Paul on Sunday.
“Whether you lose 1-0, 5-1, it’s one game,” Dallas coach Peter DeBoer said. “We’re down 2-1. We’ve got a chance to get a split here and get our home ice back with a big effort next game, so that’s what we’re looking to do.”
Mats Zuccarello hit for a double in the Minnesota win, his first staked the Wild to a 1-0 lead in the opening stanza.
“Just get the win,” Zuccarello said. “That’s the most important thing. We’re playing a really good team and we know we have to be at our best to have a chance to beat these guys. It was a solid effort all around and everyone chipped in, whether it was offensively or defensively, whatever we needed, we chipped in today.”
Marcus Johansson scored st 2:14 of the second to push the lead to 2-0 for the Wild
Luke Glendening was the lone striker for the Stars, his goal came in the middle frame, to trim the deficit to 2-1..
“The first period we had a couple chances in there and I think they did too, but the second period, you know, they get that one, we got one back and then we take a penalty, they score and then we’re trying to play catch-up,” Dallas forward Jason Robertson said. “That’s pretty much how it was.”1
Just past the midway point of the middle frame, Marcus Foligno hit off the power play for a 3-1 lead to the Wild.
Zuccarello pushed the lead to 4-1 at 14:07 in the third.
Ryan Hartman added an empty-net goal at 18:10 for the 5-1 final.
Jake Oettinger made 20 saves in the loss.
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