Wild defeat Dallas

ST. PAUL, Minn. --- The Minnesota Wild started Thursday night’s game against the Dallas Stars with all the momentum and by outshooting their opponent 9-0.  

But then Ryan Hartman took a hooking penalty in the Dallas zone which halted the fast-start momentum. It really turned the tide when Dallas winger Jason Robertson scored his 20th goal of the season on the first shot of the game for the Stars to give the visitors a 1-0 lead at Grand Casino Arena. 

That had the potential to be an omen of what was to come against the second-place Stars (21-6-5). The Wild also allowed a shorthanded goal to Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen about halfway through the game, right off a faceoff in the Wild end. 

Instead, the Wild (17-9-5) came back both times to tie the game before eventually scoring the game-winner in the third period on the way to a 5-2 victory. They came out with a win against a team ahead of them in the standings on the same day that Mats Zuccarello and defenseman Jake Middleton were placed on Injured Reserve. 

“We came out really strong the first 10, 15 minutes,” said Wild winger Marcus Johansson. “I feel like we took momentum. They got a goal on the power play, but we kept going. I think 5-on-5 we were the better team.”

Joel Eriksson Ek scored late in the first period to tie the game 1-1. He pounced on a rebound in the crease after Matt Boldy took the initial shot and Dallas goaltender Jake Oettinger couldn’t freeze the puck. 

Dallas thought it took a 3-1 lead in the second period on a Wyatt Johnston shot. But the Wild quickly challenged the play as being offsides, and it was quickly reviewed as an overturned goal to keep it a one-goal game. 

Again, late in the period, the Wild’s Danila Yurov won an offensive zone faceoff, with Vladimir Tarasenko and Zeev Buium quickly getting the puck over to Zach Bogosian near the blue line and the Wild bench. Bogosian fired a blast, and the puck found its way into the net to tie the game 2-2 with 2:30 left in the second period. 

It was Bogosian’s first goal of the season. 

“That was a classic, just get it on net and luckily it went in,” Bogosian said.

The Wild maintained their edge in shots on goal throughout the game, outshooting the Stars 32-18. That marked a season-low in shots for the Stars. The Wild also snapped Dallas’ 10-game point streak. 

Tied in the third period, the Wild had a few chances to break through, including an odd-man rush where Yurov just missed a wide-open net with his shot with 13:10 left in regulation. But a couple of minutes later, with 11:20 left, the Wild finally took the lead in the game with Johansson’s 10th goal of the season. He buried a perfect feed from Boldy, his second assist of the night. 

“You’ve always got to expect it from him, I think,” Johansson said, of Boldy’s pass. “So, it was a great play by him. We kind of tried that faceoff play a few times, and it worked out perfectly.”
 
Dallas pulled Oettinger with more than two minutes remaining trailing by a goal, and for the second time in as many games the Wild scored a pair of empty-net goals. First it was Boldy from Kirill Kaprizov with 1:31 left, and then Johansson turned and fired the puck down the ice from the other zone, with the puck hitting the inside of the post along the ice to make it a 5-2 game. 

Johansson notched his second multi-goal game of the season. 
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“JoJo is having a great year,” said Wild coach John Hynes. “I think he’s always been a player that we valued, whether he was scoring or whether he wasn’t scoring. I think this year he’s getting rewarded more than, in my experiences with him the last couple years. But I don’t think his game has changed.”