Minnesota Wild Muscle Their Way to Victory

The Minnesota Wild knew they had to bring the thunder to their game against the Dallas Stars on Friday night. They could not repeat the skate-a-thon that occurred Wednesday night in Dallas. In that game, the Wild tried to play a finesse game against the speedier Stars and were buried 7-3.  For game three, they were going to have to return to their physical, aggressive approach to the game if they were to beat the Stars.

Minnesota Wild Open the Scoring

And rise to the occasion they did, scoring first and maintaining the pressure on Dallas all night long, Minnesota Wild muscled their way to a convincing 5-1 win. From the moment that injured Wild center Mason Shaw bellowed out the “Let’s Play Hockey” the Minnesota fans were revved up and ready to make some noise.

The raucous Minnesota fans showed former Wild defenseman Ryan Suter no mercy due to his cheap shots directed at the Wild’s Kirill Kaprizov in Game 1 of the series. Each time Suter would touch the puck, a reign of boos would cascade down from the stands. And the Minnesota Wild players fed off that energy as they were on the attack all night.

Zuccarello Strikes

The slumping Mats Zuccarello started off the scoring with a gritty backhander to put the Wild up 1-0 in the first period. The score stayed that way until early in the second period when Marcus Johansson made a nifty move and fired a quick wrist shot past Stars’ goaltender Jake Oettinger to give the Wild a 2-0 lead.

Dallas quickly answered back almost immediately with center Luke Glendening’s goal to cut the Minnesota Wild lead to 2-1. Minnesota fans were hoping that this was not a momentum-shifting goal as it came just 11 seconds after Johansson’s goal.

Minnesota Wild Extend Their Lead

But with just under nine minutes left in the second period, Marcus Foligno executed a deft deflection of a Gustav Nyquist shot to extend the Wild’s lead to 3-1. The goal was originally waved off on a high stick call but on further review, the goal was allowed. Foligno took the opportunity to celebrate the goal twice, much to the amusement of the home audience.

Zuccarello completely broke out of his slump with a breakaway goal with just under six minutes left in the game. With just under two minutes left to play and Oettinger pulled for an extra skater, Ryan Hartman launched a long shot that found the back of the Dallas net to end the scoring. The Minnesota Wild left the building with a hard-fought 5-1 victory.

Stars of the Game

Besides Zuccarello’s two goals, Hartman added two assists on top of his empty net goal. Also, defenseman John Klingberg had two assists for the Wild. Wild goalie Filip Gustavsson was steady as always defending Minnesota’s net stopping 23 shots. And Mat Dumba, Foligno, Brandon Duhaime, and Ryan Reaves laid a constant hurt on any Stars player they encountered.

The only disappointment for the Wild and their fans this night was the abbreviated return of center Joel Eriksson Ek. Eriksson Ek returned from a lower-body injury suffered in an April 6 game against the Pittsburgh Penguins. But he skated a short 19-second shift and never returned to the action. The Wild’s medical staff is evaluating him and no update has been reported.

On to Game 4

Game 4 of the Western Conference Quarterfinals will be played today in St. Paul. The Minnesota Wild know that they need to maintain constant pressure on Dallas and play another physical game to break the Stars’ rhythm. The fans will undoubtedly be ready for a boisterous night. I can just feel the energy emanating from the Xcel Energy Center already.