DALLAS — All the issues that plagued the Dallas Stars at the start of playoffs became the items that aided them in a series-tying 4-2 win Monday night against the Minnesota Wild.
The Stars opened the Western Conference first-round series with a 6-1 loss Saturday in which they struggled to protect Jake Oettinger, kill penalties and generate the sort of scoring chances that led to goals.
How they tied the series Monday was by insulating Oettinger, being perfect in a penalty-riddled game, while also having Wyatt Johnston and Jason Robertson turn those chances into important goals.
“I knew our response was going to be better,” said Robertson, who scored the game-winning goal. “Our compete was going to be higher, our battles were going to be higher, and our guys would be sharper. It’s about the desperation at this time of year. You don’t want to go down in a series and not find that desperation.”
Minnesota found its opening in Game 1 by drawing penalties that it converted into three power-play goals. The Wild once again drew penalties in Game 2 — it’s just the Stars made adjustments that allowed them to go perfect the four times Minnesota went on the power play.
It started with the personnel adjustments Dallas coach Glen Gulutzan made, inserting forward Arttu Hyry — who didn’t play in Game 1 — and having him be an integral part of the penalty kill. Then, the Stars remained active any time the Wild went on the extra-skater advantage.
“I thought we got clears when we needed to,” Stars forward Colin Blackwell said. “That’s the biggest thing. We did a really good job on the face offs, and it wasn’t necessarily working harder, it was maybe working a little bit smarter and that’s with some of the adjustments that’s we maybe did. But that goes back to the identity of working hard.”
Gulutzan also had thoughts on how his PK unit performed.
“Well, we needed the reps,” Gulutzan deadpanned. “No, we have to be disciplined. We talked about playing whistle-to-whistle. We put in six penalty killers, guys that have done it for us but one of the keys is as this goes longer, everything’s going to get together, and you have to have more discipline than we did tonight.”
That was the first phase. How Oettinger played along with the support he received was the second phase in their comeback plan.
Wild forward Matthew Boldy was the recipient of a backdoor pass that gave him a point-blank shot on net that Oettinger swallowed, with Johnston scoring the game’s first goal 14 seconds later with 11:02 remaining in the first.
The Wild would eventually get their goal when Brock Faber got to the slot and snuck one past Oettinger to tie the game with 8:27 left. They tried to get one more with a pass that split the Stars defense and allowed Boldy to get a breakaway, only to be denied by Oettinger, who stopped 11 of the 12 first-period shots he faced.
“He’s obviously one of the best players in the league,” Oettinger said of Boldy, his U.S. Olympic teammate. “Super skilled and talented. I was gabble I was able to step up and make a couple of nice saves on him.”
Oettinger stopping 28 of the 30 shots he faced provided the balance the Stars needed for the third phase of their comeback by having the necessary comfort to attack whenever they were in the Wild’s zone.
Wild goaltender Jesper Wallstedt, who stopped 28 of the 31 shots he faced, was busy in Game 1 when he made 27 saves. But that came with the understanding that the Stars struggled to find time and space to generate any goals.
Monday saw them find more of both with Matt Duchene scoring a power-play goal in the second period for a 2-1 lead.
Robertson’s goal in the third pushed it to a 3-1 lead before Faber’s second midway through the frame created questions about if the Wild were going to come back to tie the game.
Minnesota appeared to have found an opening when Dallas was called for a too many skaters penalty with 3:44 remaining. The Stars’ penalty kill made it hard for the Wild to launch shots — and when they did, Oettinger stopped the two that made it to net.
Shortly after the Wild went on the power play, they were assessed the same too many skaters penalty which allowed the Stars, who had 16 third-period shots, to go on the power play.
That forced the Wild to pull Wallstedt to give them a 5-on-5 with an empty net on the other end. Johnston cleared the puck out of the zone before it went end-to-end, curling into the net with 50 seconds left to tie the series.
“You know you’re never really going to play a full 60 where you dominate the whole time,” Johnston said. “I think it’s just important to stick with your game and get you your game as fast as you can and just stick with it for as long as you can.
“We’re a dangerous team when we do that.”
