AP Photo/Julio Cortez
DALLAS — The Minnesota Wild have an opportunity to do something they have never done in the NHL playoffs after putting the Dallas Stars in a very familiar postseason position.
Minnesota’s 6-1 thumping of its Central Division rival in Game 1 sets up the possibility Monday night to go up 2-0 in a playoff series for the first time in 15 postseason appearances over its 25-season history.
“We won a game, we didn’t win a series. So it’s just moving on to Game 2. … We’re not satisfied with winning one game,” Wild coach John Hynes said Sunday.
“We’re living in the now, the past is the past. Different teams, different identities, different experience levels,” forward Matt Boldy said. “We go into this game with the same mindset we went in going into Game 1. … Doesn’t matter if you’re up 2-0, up 3-0. It doesn’t matter until you get the fourth (win). So that’s our mindset and we’re not looking too far.”
The Wild haven’t gotten the clinching fourth win of a series since beating St. Louis in the first round of the 2015 playoffs. They have lost their last nine postseason series in the Western Conference playoffs, including losses to Dallas in 2016 and 2023.
For the Stars, it was the ninth time in 11 playoff series since 2022 that they lost Game 1 — 1-7 at home in that span, including a 5-1 loss to Colorado to open last year’s playoffs. They came back from those early deficits to win seven of those nine series, and made it to the West final each of the past three seasons.
“I’m not too worried,” Stars forward Mikko Rantanen said. “This team is really good at resetting and coming back the next night.”
Boldy scored two goals and had an assist in the series opener, including the last of three goals Minnesota had in the first 6 1/2 minutes of the second period for a 4-0 lead.
The five-goal victory matched the biggest ever for the Wild in the playoffs, and they had five players with multiple points. Joel Eriksson Ek scored two power-play goals and had an assist, while Kirill Kaprizov added a goal and two assists and Mats Zuccarello had three helpers. Rookie goalie Jesper Wallstedt stopped 27 of 28 shots in his postseason debut.
“I liked the performance of everyone that was in the lineup, for sure,” Hynes said.
When asked if Wallstedt would start again over playoff-experienced Filip Gustavsson in Game 2, the coach responded, “I’m just going to go day by day with that.”
Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said he would be sticking with goalie Jake Oettinger, who gave up five goals on 28 shots, two on power plays and another on a deflection.
“I saw more of a team-play thing that we can all be a little bit better from every guy,” Gulutzan said Sunday. “Some nights you can, any team in the league can, look at their goalie and go, oh man, that was (on the) goalie. But last night wasn’t one of them.”
This is the 11th playoff series for Minnesota native Oettinger, but the second postseason game in a row when things didn’t go as planned. He was pulled from the deciding Game 6 of the West final last year by then-coach Pete DeBoer after giving up two goals on the only shots he faced in the first 7:09 of what turned into a 6-3 win for Edmonton.
*Associated Press
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