In perhaps their most dominant playoff victory in team history, the Minnesota Wild traveled “deep in the heart of Texas” and made an absolute statement, trouncing the Stars 6-1 in the opening contest of their first-round matchup against Dallas. It was billed as likely the only 50/50 series in which the teams were so evenly matched up, that no clear favorite was present before today’s game.
After the first period, that appeared to be the case. The only score in the first came off a nifty tic-tac-toe pass from Mats Zuccarello to Matt Boldy to Joel Eriksson Ek who redirected a pass from the baseline past Dallas goalie, Jake Oettinger while the Wild were on the power play. An early goal and momentum for the visiting Wild with another 40 minutes left to play.
Less than a minute into the second period however, Kirill Kaprizov took a seam pass from Ryan Hartman and flipped a quick wrister over Oettinger’s glove short side to put the Wild up 2-0. Hartman would add a goal of his own about 2.5 minutes later and the rout was officially on. Matt Boldy made it a 4-0 game just 6.5 minutes into the second period. The Stars would get their lone (star) goal of the game on the power play at the 15:10 mark of the second, but that’s as close as the Stars would get it.
Eriksson Ek would add his second power play goal of the game in the third period and Boldy would score a late empty netter to send the majority of Dallas fans homes early. Perhaps the biggest individual surprise was the play of rookie goaltender, Jesper Wallstedt for the Wild.
The youngster making his NHL playoff debut stopped 26 shots, including some point-blank stops from the Stars’ best and was absolutely sensational. The one goal that did slip by him was largely insignificant. It did give the Stars’ fans reasons to cheer for a few minutes, so they had that going for them, which is nice.
In a result that no one saw coming, it was a complete dismantling of a Stars team – be it stopping their potent offense, making their defense and effort look terrible or soundly beating their long-term nemesis in Oettinger. There weren’t many negatives to the game for the Wild, other than a couple of undisciplined holding penalties.
It’s hard not to overreact with a playoff victory like this if you’re a Wild fan. However, what the Stars AND the Wild teams will be told, is that this is only one game and it takes four wins to complete the series. Did the Stars underestimate the Wild to start the series? It sure looks like they may have. Rest assured though, they won’t any longer.
The Wild went down to Texas and took care of business in game one, no doubt about it. They need to come out with that same intensity in game two and the rest of the series. Dallas is too good of a team to take lightly. For tonight however, the Stars were not “big and bright” deep in the heart of Texas.
Game 2 is Monday night with puck drop at 8:30pm from Dallas and can be found on ESPN. It’s going to be a good one!! Go Wild!!!