Wild overwhelm Stars to take 2-1 series lead
The Minnesota Wild used the energy inside Xcel Energy Center to lean on the Dallas Stars until they broke in a 5-1 victory in Game 3 of the best-of-seven playoff series. The Wild now lead the series 2-1 with Game 4 in St. Paul Sunday evening.
Mats Zuccarello scored a pair of goals including the icebreaker at 16:45 of the first period. The Wild went ahead 2-0 at 2:14 of the second period on Marcus Johansson's snipe only to have the Stars douse that fire 11 seconds later when a loose puck was swatted past Filip Gustavsson.
But Gustavsson was otherwise perfect, making 23 saves after he sat on the bench and watched the defense and Marc-Andre Fleury allow seven goals in Minnesota's Game 2 loss. Gustavsson was the hero in Game 1, making a franchise record 51 saves in a double-overtime victory.
Marcus Foligno's power-play goal at 11:24 of the middle period made it 3-1, and the Wild poured it on the third period with Zuccarello's second of the night followed by Ryan Hartman's empty-net goal 1:50 left in the game.
A big difference on home ice was the Wild only giving Dallas two power plays, killing both of them. That was a big boost after the Wild's penalty kill units were torched for five goals on 11 Dallas power plays in the first two games of the series.
Game 4 is Sunday in St. Paul at 5:30 p.m. It'll be televised on Bally Sports North and TBS.
