At the 92:10 mark of a game that began on a Wednesday and wrapped up in the wee hours of a Thursday, Wyatt Johnston tipped the puck past Wild goalie Jesper Wallstedt and silenced the crowd in the State of Hockey as the Dallas Stars beat Minnesota 4-3 in double overtime.
Matt Duchene had three points, including the goal that forced extra time, as the Stars took a 2-1 series lead in this Western Conference first-round series. If Game 3 was any indication, this one could well go the best-of-seven distance.
Dallas, owners of the NHL’s second-best power play during the regular season, struck three times with the man advantage, including Johnston’s winner.
The Wild had two power plays in overtime, but failed to convert on both in front of fans who were on their feet at Grand Casino Arena in Saint Paul for all of overtime.
The game was back and forth and back and forth again, and it saw the Stars get out to an early 2-0 lead, and Wild star forward Matt Boldy leave the ice after a hit to the head before returning to help flip the script on the game, though only temporarily.
Wild goalie Jesper Wallstedt, the 23-year-old rookie who managed to look calm and collected all game long, made 32 saves in his first home start of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and the winner was a tight deflection he didn’t have a chance to stop.
Here are our takeaways from Game 3, which saw Wild defender Quinn Hughes log a game-high 43:47 minutes of ice time.
Boldy down but definitely not out
In the first period, Stars captain Jamie Benn skated through the slot and clipped Boldy as he skated by, making contact with Boldy’s head. Boldy immediately went down on the ice and didn’t return for the rest of the period.
You could hear the collective sigh of relief in Minnesota when the star winger came back in the second — and did Boldy ever come back. Early in the second frame, the 25-year-old winger led a rush into the offensive zone, wheeling through three Stars players and corralling a bouncing puck before he found a wide-open Joel Eriksson Ek in the slot, who then found a wide-open net to tie the game. Eriksson Ek pointed at his winger afterwards — it was a heck of a pass.
Boldy, who recorded a career-high 42 goals this season, now has four points this series. He nearly added to that tally: Boldy wired one off the post on a power play, and in the third he narrowly missed cashing in on a rebound after a short-handed two-on-one with Eriksson Ek.
For a team that has been without veteran playmaker Mats Zuccarello for the last two games due to injury, losing Boldy would’ve been worse than a sucker punch.
The Stars forward figured in big on both his team’s goals in the first frame, the first coming on the power play. Just 1:15 into the game, Robertson threaded a laser-beam pass through traffic to find Mikko Rantanen for an easy deflection to give the Stars the early lead.
Then, with about six minutes to go in the first, Robertson made it 2-0 Dallas after a turnover that led to a two-on-one. Robertson looked off his winger and then snapped it into the back of the net from his off-wing.
Robertson now has goals in all three games this series.
There were so many in this game, and one of the biggest came late in the second period after Dallas squandered a massive opportunity.
Minnesota was already short-handed when Boldy fired the puck over the glass, incurring a delay of game penalty and gifting Dallas a five-on-three for 41 seconds. But the Wild survived it all, and stymied the Stars’ usually lethal power play.
Not only that, but just seven seconds after Boldy got out of the penalty box, Nick Foligno found Michael McCarron streaking down the ice, and McCarron wired one over Jake Oettinger’s blocker to give the Wild a 3-2 lead.
It was McCarron’s first-ever playoff goal, and talk about a boost from a monster penalty kill.
The shot seemingly caught Oettinger by surprise, and otherwise the Stars netminder was solid in Game 3, with 28 saves to record the win. The first goal came on the Wild power play after Marcus Johansson fired a shot from the slot that deflected off at least two bodies and pin-balled its way into the net. Oettinger also didn’t have a chance on the second goal thanks to Boldy’s shiftiness, and that sweet dish.
It was late in the third when Oettinger made a pair of big saves on a two-on-one while Dallas was on the power play. Duchene tied things up seconds later thanks to some incredible patience from Rantanen, who waited and timed a pass that Duchene one-timed into the back of the net from a bad angle.
The momentum had swung yet again in Game 3, and for the last time.
Game 5 is on Saturday at 7 p.m. CT in Saint Paul.
