A generation ago, Minnesota lost its NHL team to Dallas. On Monday, all they lost was their replacement NHL team’s winning streak.
Backstopped by 32 saves from Jake Oettinger, the Dallas Stars beat the Wild 3-0 at American Airlines Center, after Minnesota had won its previous three in a row.
Except for one bad minute in the second period when Dallas got a pair of quick goals from Wyatt Johnston and Matt Duchene, Wild goalie Filip Gustavsson matched Oettinger – the former Lakeville North prep star. But he took the loss despite 29 saves. Mason Marchment added an empty-net goal for the Stars in the final minute.
It was the fifth time this season that the Wild had been shut out, and the first blanking since early February. For Oettinger, it was his second clean sheet of the season.
Minnesota not only lost the game, but may have lost another player to injury, as defenseman Declan Chisholm left the rink in the second period and did not return.
At the most recent trade deadline, the Stars made a splash by going out and grabbing Mikko Rantanen from his brief stop in Carolina, and adding former Wild first-rounder Mikael Granlund from San Jose. The Wild had made minor moves, in part due to fiscal constraints, and in part due to general manager Bill Guerin’s faith in the team that he had assembled and had gotten Minnesota into a solid playoff position when healthy.
Gustavsson, who was named the NHL’s first star of the week earlier in the day after winning his previous three starts, was tested by both Rantanen and Granlund early, with the goalie winning both battles. He poke-checked a puck off Rantanen’s stick on a partial breakaway, then foiled a point-blank shot by Granlund with a sweeping glove save.
The first period ended scoreless with each team killing a penalty, and the Wild beginning the middle frame on a man advantage after Rantanen hauled down Minnesota forward Marcus Johansson in the final seconds of the first. The Wild got a quartet of shots on the power play but could not score, then Oettinger made a highlight reel glove save on Marco Rossi with the teams again skating five-on-five.
Dallas finally broke the scoreless deadlock on a late second period power play when Johnston tipped a shot past Gustavsson from the top of the crease. It was a rare goal given up by the Wild’s penalty killers in recent games. After struggling most of the season with a player in the penalty box, the Wild had killed 14 of their previous 15 penalties coming into the game.
The Stars doubled their lead less than a minute later when Duchene sent a shot through traffic that Gustavsson didn’t see until it was past the goalie. Minnesota defenseman Jon Merrill went to the penalty box with 1:29 left in the period, but the Wild survived a Dallas shooting gallery on the ensuing power play and got to the locker room for the second intermission only trailing by two.
They started the third period with just five defensemen, after Chisholm did not return from the locker room for the final 20 minutes. He blocked a shot in the middle period and left the game, after Chisholm had been a healthy scratch in Minnesota’s Saturday win over Buffalo.
After a one-night engagement in their road white sweaters, the Wild are back in Minnesota for their next three, beginning on Tuesday night when the Vegas Golden Knights come to visit. Vegas, which is leading the Pacific Division, has won their first two head-to-head meetings with Minnesota this season.
