It's one of those redirections that the Wild planned out perfectly that doomed the Stars in overtime. Nothing the Stars could really have done to prevent that goal other than score before they did. That's why you could tell after practice today that the Stars felt like they should have gone for the head like Thor wished he did against Thanos. Now that the series is even at 2, it could go either way tomorrow night at the American Airlines Center. The Stars wished they had that 3-1 lead headed into tomorrow night's game.
The good news for Dallas fans is that Miro Heiskanen is playing tomorrow night. The Stars decided to give their top defenseman the day off, since he's been playing a lot of minutes throughout the series. Everyone can breathe a sigh of relief since he didn't get injured after taking a puck off his leg in Game 4. However, the Stars will be without Nils Lundkvist tomorrow night, and he has a very good reason why he's out across his cheek.
There was no way that Lunkvist was going to suit up for the Stars after sustaining that injury. I knew as soon as he left the ice in the previous game that he wasn't going to be back for Tuesday's game. If the Stars do go on to eliminate the Wild and advance to take on the Colorado Avalanche, he might miss some more games in that series. I didn't think the Stars were really going to miss Nils Lundkvist, but based on how he's played the first four games, they will definitely miss him.
Now the Stars sounded like they want to win tomorrow during their post-practice interviews. Even Jake Oettinger was calm and collected after he had an amazing overtime performance in Game 4, despite the loss. I was worried the loss would really affect the team, but it seems to have made them more determined to come away with a win in Game 5 and put the Wild on the brink of elimination. However, the Wild might be getting some reinforcements ahead of Game 5.
Matt Zucarello was practicing today as well, and that's not good news if the Stars end up on the penalty kill. The Wild's power play has been pretty tame without Zucarello in the lineup, which has really helped the Stars, but could end up backfiring against Dallas in a huge game tomorrow night. While it's not official that he will be in the lineup tomorrow night, I'm not liking how he's back on the ice practicing.
I hope losing Game 4 in Minnesota doesn't backfire on the Stars. I would hate to look back at that game as the reason the Stars got eliminated from the playoffs. They would be doing everything right in that game, but they took their foot off the gas when the game entered the third period. I think Dallas snaps back tomorrow night, as they did in Game 2, but the Wild won't make it easy. The fate of the Stars' playoff run lies in how they decide to come out of the gate in Game 5.
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