Stars steamroll Fleury and Wild to even series 1-1
Marc-Andre Fleury's 2023 playoff debut did not go well, though he didn't get much help from Minnesota's defense in a 7-3 loss to Dallas Wednesday night. The best-of-seven series is now even at 1-1 with Game 3 in St. Paul Friday night.
The second period was a mess, with Dallas getting goals from Jamie Benn and Evgenii Dadonov 1:27 apart to take a 4-1 lead, only to have the Wild respond with two goals in 11 seconds – Marcus Johansson on a power play and Freddy Gaudreau 11 seconds later – to cut the deficit to 4-3.
Just when the Wild were back in the fight, Dadonov made it 5-3 before Roope Hintz's second goal of the night – 44 seconds later – put the Stars back on top by three, 6-3.
Hintz's power play goal in the third period completed the hat trick.
Fleury allowed seven goals on just 31 Dallas shots. It's a good bet that Filip Gustavsson, who had 52 saves in Minnesota's double overtime Game 1 victory, will be back in net Friday night for Game 3.
Special teams struggles began in first period
After going on the power play early through the first period, the Wild turned the puck over at the Dallas blue line and Roope Hintz collected it for a breakaway chance that he beat Marc-Andre Fleury with on the glove side for a shorthanded goal and a 1-0 lead just 4:14 into the game.
Then, after Jake Middleton was whistled for a high stick and penalized with a four-minute minor, the Wild fought off Stars man advantage for 3 minutes and 30 seconds before Jason Robertson's slap shot was tipped by Fleury by Tyler Seguin for a 2-0 Dallas lead.
Minnesota's penalty kill allowed three goals on seven Dallas power plays.
Oskar Sundqvist scored the first goal of the game for Minnesota.
