The Dallas Stars defeated the Minnesota Wild 7-3 Wednesday night to win Game 2 of their first round playoff series. Here’s what you need to know:
- The Stars advanced 2-1 after the first period, while six goals were scored in the second set. Up to 4-3, the Stars scored twice, 48 seconds apart.
- All-star center Rob Hintz scored a hat-trick on his way to victory.
- Wild goalie Marc-Andre Fleury got the start on Philipp Gustafsson and allowed seven goals on 31 shots.
- The Stars and Wild are tied at one point returning to Minnesota for Games 3 and 4.
the athleteInstant Analysis:
The flower withers
Common sense for most teams after recording a record 51 assists was to come back with that goaltender in Game 2 for a chance to take the first 2-0 lead in franchise history. Instead of getting back together with Gustafsson, he went wild with Fleury and had a rough night. For the sixth time in his career playoffs and first in 34 playoff games, Fleury gave up six goals. The seven matched a career high on April 13, 2012, when Pittsburgh played Philadelphia.
He was beaten on the first shot he faced, handed a poor goal to Jimmy Bean and after the Wild cut a 4-1 deficit to 4-3 on goals from Marcus Johansson and Freddie Goudreau 11 seconds apart, Fleury gave up two goals 48 seconds apart. Wednesday was the most goals the Wild have allowed in a playoff game. – Rousseau
Criminal homicide cases again
One year after giving up eight goals on 26 power play attempts against St. Louis during last spring’s first-round exit, the Wild allowed five goals on 11 chances through two games of the series. In Game 1 on Monday, he gave up two goals in nine seconds of solid playing time on the first two attempts he faced. On Wednesday, they gave up three more chances in six. If Wild doesn’t fix this glaring weakness, it’s going to be a long – or rather short – series. – Rousseau
Wild needs better than Caprezov and Zuccarillo
After one game after not being in the latter half of Game 1, Caprezov and Zuccarillo struggled mightily without quarterback Ryan Hartman, the double OT champion on Monday who missed the game with a lower body injury. Kaprizov started the night horribly by needlessly dragging the offensive blue line just so he could wait for Zuccarello and force a pass. Instead, he delivered it for the first of Hintz’s three goals.
Kaprizov gave the pucks away all night and only had 2 shots and was a minus 2. Zuccarillo was even worse. He’s given pucks away like Halloween candy every game and is still completely ineffective. This is after he had an underwhelming three seasons with the Wild (one goal and seven assists in 17 games) and finishing this regular season with four goals and 19 assists in his last 38 games. – Rousseau
A quick start to the stars
Pete DeBoer emphasized the Stars’ lackluster start in Game 1 as one of his primary concerns in losing. The Stars corrected that in Game 2 as Hintz made magic from a bad situation. The Stars scored from the penalty spot in the first five minutes and Hintze scored a short-range goal. The Stars added another goal early on to take a 2-0 lead giving them the start and relief they needed. – Yusef
Where did the stars get their attack from
Special teams dominated the stars today. They had three power play goals and one short handed game to go to more than half of their scoring output. It was especially important without Joe Pavelski, who was injured in Game 1 and didn’t play in Game 2. Tyler Seguin slid into place on the power and on the power play. He scored a powerful Pavelski-esque goal, returning a Jason Robertson shot. – Yusef
Highlight of the game
2023 NHL Playoffs bracket
required reading
(Photo: Tom Pennington/Getty Images)
