Wild top Stars in OT

In Dallas, the Stars lost to the Minnesota Wild on Thursday night when Frederick Gaudreau  hit for the winner in extra time for a 3-2 decision.

The Wild’s Marc-Andre Fleury set up the goal with a stretch pass out of the defensive zone.

“I saw him out of the corner of my eye, he was still sitting back a bit,” Fleury said. “I guess it was the French sense. I just tried to go around their forechecker, they were coming in pretty hard. But [Gaudreau] made an awesome play to get that goal.”

Fleury made 34 saves in the win.

“We liked how it was that playoff type of hockey game,” Minnesota coach Dean Evason said. “We just played hard, played right. We’re happy with the group.”

Jason Robertson scored both regulation goals for Dallas.

“We’ll take a point where we can get it,” Robertson said. “This time of the year, you’d rather one point than zero points, but we still have to keep going and we have an important one Saturday (against the San Jose Sharks).”

Minnesota improved to 46-21-6, they are tied with the St Louis Blues for second in the Central Division.

Dallas dropped to 42-27-5, the loser’s point allowed them t tie the Nashville Predators for the first wild card spot in the Western Conference.

“We outplayed them all three periods, we just didn’t put enough pucks behind them,” Dallas coach Rick Bowness said. “We had goal posts, we had open nets, we didn’t get the puck in. That’s hockey. I’m very happy with the way we played. We just beat Tampa (1-0 on Tuesday), we just tied Minnesota and we lost in overtime, two of the best teams in the league. We keep playing like that, things are going to be OK.”

Kevin Fiala hit for a pair of regulation goals for the Wild.

Fiala scored once off the penalty kill for his first career NHL shorthanded strike.

“It was my goal to be a complete player,” Fiala said. “Now playing PK, very grateful to get the chance and I feel very comfortable in that position. Just great to do something else for the team, to be defensively and kill penalties is very big.”

Scott Wedgewood made 24 saves in the Dallas loss.

“I think that’s two playoff type games that in a regular season that’s the closest you’re going to get, so I think we’ve rose to the occasion when we’ve met these games, and that’s great,” the Stars’ Tyler Seguin said. “I don’t think that as a team or as individuals we can really just flip a switch going into playoffs. You’ve got to be playing playoff hockey going in there, that’s why sometimes you see the lesser seeds come out and have upsets. It’s cause they’re playing these games, you know, fighting for our lives, so that’s [a] positive.”