The Minnesota Wild seemed to block every shot the Dallas Stars took and got a couple of goals past Kari Lehtonen to win, 2-1. The Stars once again went into a third period at home tied, and once again they left the ice on the losing side. Both teams defended quite well and Darcy Kuemper made some terrific stops for the Wild on their way to the win.
Recap
The Stars came out determined to get a lead and they probably would have if it wasn’t for Kuemper. Nearly half the period went by and the Stars dominated play while not allowing a single shot from Minnesota. The Wild closed the gap towards the end of the period and the teams went into the room scoreless through 20 minutes of play.
The second period is where play really started to pick up for both teams. Most of the first period was pretty clogged up and the offensive stars were not able to find room to work. Although the second period was similar, the goals started to get through the mass of bodies in front of each goaltender. Vernon Fiddler had a nice wraparound chance on Kuemper about five minutes into the period and Antoine Roussel roofed the rebound past Kuemper to give the Stars a 1-0 lead. The Stars continued to control play soon after that goal by Roussel and had lots of time in the Minnesota end of the ice. They were unable to put one by Kuemper for some insurance and it proved to be costly. Brenden Dillon turned the puck over at the offensive blue line and chose the wrong guy on a 2-1 the other way. Erik Haula tied the game with a wrist shot past Kari Lehtonen on the 2-1 and Minnesota took control of the period.
The third period started how the second ended. Lehtonen had a tough rebound hang around his pads and Mikael Granlund slammed it home to give the Wild their first lead of the game. Although the Stars continued to push, Kuemper would just not relent. He had some spectacular saves against Roussel and Ryan Garbutt in the period and the defense in front of him had quite a few stops as well. The Stars pulled the goalie with 90 seconds left but just couldn’t seem to get a shot through the Minnesota defenders for the rest of the game. The puck hopped over Ales Hemsky‘s stick in the slot with about 10 seconds to go and that was the game.
Thoughts and Observations
The Stars simply can’t win third periods at home right now and it has to be in their heads at times. They make more mistakes in the third and they can’t seem to score any goals either. They are going to need a bounce or two late in the game on home ice to maybe get things going in the right direction again.
The trio of Antoine Roussel, Cody Eakin, and Ryan Garbutt was fantastic in this game. They were absolutely tenacious on the puck in both ends of the ice and probably had the best chances of any line for the Stars. Eakin was relentless on the forecheck and Garbutt was as well. This allowed Roussel to be around the grill of Kuemper for much of the game and could have led to more than just the one goal.
Defensively the Stars played pretty well again. Brenden Dillon made a mistake in the offensive zone and a strange rebound off the pads of Lehtonen were the two goals in the game. John Klingberg continues to be very impressive and had quite a few solid defensive plays. He has really steadied the defense and allowed Alex Goligoski to return to his natural side.
The Stars quickly head off to Chicago for a 6:00pm CT game tomorrow against the Blackhawks! Keep reading for more game previews and postgame analysis!