The game between the Minnesota Wild and Dallas Stars will take place at Xcel Energy Center on Friday, April 21 at 9:30 PM ET.
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The Minnesota Wild will welcome the Dallas Stars to Xcel Energy Center for an NHL game on Friday. The Minnesota Wild lost 7-3 in their last game over the Stars. “It’s what we do, right? We’ve done it all year,” Minnesota coach Dean Evason said of the goalies who have split games most of the season. “Nothing was on Fleury tonight, it was all on us. … They had a short-handed breakaway and two power-play goals. What would you like Fleury to do?” Game 3 is Friday night in Minnesota.
Minnesota’s two goals in quick succession were Marcus Johansson’s short backhander on a power play, 11 seconds before Frederick Gaudreau had a similar shot past Jake Oettinger to get the Wild within one. Oettinger, the 24-year-old who wears No. 29 after growing up a fan of Fleury, stopped 23 shots.
The 38-year-old Fleury had 24 saves in his 168th career playoff game. He had been 8-3-1 over his final 12 starts of the regular season. “Embarrassing on my part, you know. Giving up seven goals like that in the playoffs,” Fleury said. “I want to come in and give a chance to my team in the game and win, and that’s not what I did. … Bottom line, I didn’t make any key saves in the game.”
The Dallas Stars on the other hand won 7-3 against the Wilds in their last game. Roope Hintz had a goal in each period, getting his first career hat trick by scoring three different ways, as the Dallas Stars stepped up without Joe Pavelski to get even in their first-round series against the Minnesota Wild. Hintz scored short-handed on Dallas’ first shot in Game 2, added a even-strength goal in the second period and then finished with a power-play goal in the third period of the Stars’ 7-3 win over the Wild on Wednesday night.
“He’s elite and he’s capable of taking over games like that. And we needed him,” Dallas coach Pete DeBoer said. “Our team, with what happened with Pavelski the other night, a little bit rattled, we needed our our best players to step up tonight and make a statement. And they did. Every one of them, not just Roope.” Evgenii Dadonov scored twice for the Stars, while captain Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin both had power-play goals. Miro Heiskanen, their high-scoring defenseman, had four assists, while 100-point scorer Jason Robertson had two. Hintz also had an assist.
The Dallas scoring onslaught came against three-time Stanley Cup champion goalie Marc-André Fleury, who got the start even after 24-year-old Filip Gustavsson made his playoff debut with a franchise-record 51 saves in the series opener the Wild won 3-2 in double overtime. The Stars never trailed after Hintz’s breakaway short-hander just 4 1/2 minutes into the game, after Joel Kiviranta’s takeaway in the defensive end. Dallas led 2-0 midway through the first period when Seguin, in front of Fleury, redirected a long one-timer by Robertson during an extended power play.
Gustav Nyquist – Matt Boldy – Matt Dumba
Frédérick Gaudreau – Marcus Johansson – Oskar Sundqvist
Mats Zuccarello – Jonas Brodin – Connor Dewar
Brandon Duhaime – Brock Faber
Marc-André Fleury – Marcus Foligno
Kirill Kaprizov – Jon Merrill
Jacob Middleton – Ryan Reaves
Jared Spurgeon
Sam Steel
Miro Heiskanen – Roope Hintz – Jamie Benn
Evgenii Dadonov – Jason Robertson – Wyatt Johnston
Joel Kiviranta – Tyler Seguin – Ty Dellandrea
Max Domi – Radek Faksa
Luke Glendening – Jani Hakanpää
Thomas Harley – Esa Lindell
Mason Marchment – Colin Miller
Jake Oettinger
Ryan Suter
Minnesota Wild: Ryan Hartman, John Klingberg, Joel Eriksson Ek, Mason Shaw
Dallas Stars: Joe Pavelski
The game between the Minnesota Wild and Dallas Stars will take place at Xcel Energy Center on Friday, April 21 at 9:30 PM ET.
The match between the Minnesota Wild and Dallas Stars will be telecast live on Fox Sports Southwest, Bally Sports Southwest, ESPN2, Fox Sports North, Bally Sports North.
| Country | Channel | Date and Time |
| United States | Fox Sports Southwest, Bally Sports Southwest, ESPN2, Fox Sports North, Bally Sports North. | April 21 (9:30 PM ET) |
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