DALLAS — The Dallas Stars have been through enough emotional wringers over the past few springs to know that Game 1 of their first-round series against the Minnesota Wild wasn’t a death knell for their season. The half-hearted effort, the sloppy puck management, the Jake Oettinger shakiness — that’s not them, they insisted. That was the exception, not the rule.
You don’t go on a 14-0-1 run during the regular season while missing some of your biggest names if you can’t handle a little adversity, if you can’t shake off a bad period.
“We’re going in with that killer instinct that we’re gonna win this game,” veteran forward Matt Duchene said before Monday’s Game 2. “When we have that, we’re damn good. That big point streak we went on this year, we had that for pretty much that whole thing. We didn’t believe there was a chance of us losing.”
Sure enough, Dallas came out for Game 2 looking like the perennial contender Stars, not whoever those imposters were in Game 1.
Captain Jamie Benn threw a hit early and Colin Blackwell, Justin Hryckowian and Tyler Myers followed suit all game. Mikko Rantanen was crashing the net, Miro Heiskanen was stifling the Wild power play, and Dallas’ stars suffocated Minnesota’s stars.
Perhaps most importantly, Oettinger was spectacular, making three sensational glove saves in the first period — one of which led directly to Dallas’ first goal — and 28 in all.
Nobody expected this to be a cakewalk. And sure enough, the Stars came out with a fast, fun and ferocious 4-2 win, sending the series north to St. Paul tied 1-1.
Brock Faber continued his strong play for the Wild, scoring the first two goals of his playoff career, but it wasn’t enough to buck history. In 25 years, the Wild have still not taken a 1-0 series lead and turned it into 2-0.
This was supposed to be the best matchup of the first round, and on this night, it lived up to the billing.
“You have two really good teams that are highly competitive, and I think you saw that tonight,” Wild coach John Hynes said. “Don’t think it’s a surprise. I thought, for us, we put together two highly competitive games and could have won two. But we only won one. So gather some information out of this game and then get ready for Game 3.”
Foligno brothers’ lack of discipline proves costly
After a sensational first period that featured a fluky goal by Wyatt Johnston when a missed shot ricocheted off Jesper Wallstedt and into the net, and Faber scoring the first of his goals, both Folignos — older brother, Nick, and younger brother, Marcus — took bad second-period penalties.
Just 2:16 into the first, after Nick Foligno flipped a puck from outside the blue line into Oettinger’s glove, the goalie steered the puck into the corner and Foligno was called for elbowing a ducking Nils Lundkvist.
On the ensuing power play, the Wild were doing a fine job when two of their normally reliable penalty killers fouled up. Joel Eriksson Ek cleared the zone but flubbed the clear and didn’t send it the length of the ice. After the regroup, Matt Boldy tried to stick-check Rantanen and Ole’d like a bullfighter. Rantanen backhanded a centering pass for Duchene’s power-play goal and a 2-1 lead.
“You’ve gotta stay out of the box,” Boldy said. “It’s a really good power play over there. It’s hard to kill penalties. It’s hard to keep momentum and stuff like that. So, yeah, it’s a focus for us, for sure, and I think we can do better and improve. But I think everyone in this room knows that.”
Then, with two seconds left in the period, as Thomas Harley was fencing off Marcus Foligno on an entry, he locked the defenseman’s head and twisted him toward the curved glass between the bench and offensive zone.
The referees originally called Foligno for a major penalty, but upon review downgraded it to a double roughing minor and assessed Harley an interference minor. So Foligno caught a break not being kicked out of his second playoff game in Dallas in three years. But the Stars ended up with a two-minute power play.
“He interferes with me, and there’s a stanchion in the way,” Foligno said. “I think there’s an interference call on him, and at that point, do you think I’m gonna think about smashing a guy’s head in that quick of time? No, it’s unfortunate that there’s glass in the way.”
The Wild did kill the Foligno minor early in the third, then caught a break when, for the first time, they challenged a delay-of-game penalty after the refs called Faber for putting the puck into the stands. It was determined the puck deflected off Mavrik Bourque’s stick, and the penalty was rescinded. Had the challenge failed, Dallas would have gotten a five-on-three.
“They’re looking to play five-on-four,” Foligno said. “I mean, that’s their game. They can’t hang with us five-on-five. So just same thing as before, we’ve got to just be smarter, and myself included. But it’s a heated game out there. You’re gonna have emotional swings and learn from it. And we’ve got a split series.”
Added Faber, “They’re a good hockey team, right? It’s going to be a battle of a series, and we knew that coming in. We knew that they were going to respond this game. I think we’re the tougher team. I think we have to be tougher mentally. That’ll only be good for us.”
Oettinger bounces back in a big way
Oettinger wasn’t solely to blame for the Stars’ Game 1 faceplant — far from it. But given the way Dallas’ postseason ended last spring, with him benched after giving up two goals on two shots to Edmonton in Game 5 of the Western Conference final, his pedestrian effort raised more than a few eyebrows.
But Oettinger’s short-term memory is as reliable as his glove hand.
“His ability to bounce back in games is pretty impressive,” Benn said. “Just goes to show how mentally strong he is.”
It didn’t take long for Minnesota to test that mental toughness. A little more than eight minutes into the game, Bobby Brink found Danila Yurov all alone in the slot for a point-blank shot on Oettinger. He swatted it away, and seconds later, Johnston’s shot off the back boards banked in off Wallstedt to give Dallas a 1-0 lead.
— DallasStarsGoals (@DallasStarsGoal) April 21, 2026
Oettinger was just getting started. About four minutes later, he made a sprawling glove save on Boldy off a slick centering pass from Quinn Hughes. And less than three minutes after that, Oettinger gloved down a Boldy breakaway. It could have been 4-0 Minnesota after one period. Instead, it was 1-1 — the only Wild goal a phenomenal one-man effort by Faber.
In the third, after Jason Robertson gave Dallas a 3-1 lead, Oettinger made a sprawling save to rob Hughes before Faber potted his second of the game.
Oettinger is now 19-8 with one shutout and a .917 save percentage in playoff games following a loss.
Wild stars blanketed
The Wild’s top forwards had their way with Dallas in Game 1, with Kirill Kaprizov, Boldy and Eriksson Ek combining for four goals and nine points in a 6-1 victory. They were dominant at five-on-five and on the power play. But clearly the Stars made an adjustment for Monday’s Game 2.
Boldy did have a couple of good looks in the first period, including the breakaway. Other than that, it was a quiet night for the trio, including Kaprizov, who had just two shots (three others attempted).
The Stars were physical with Boldy and Kaprizov, not giving them much time or space with the puck. That included on the power play, where Dallas was more efficient in protecting the middle of the ice. If the Wild did set up on the power play, they were mostly kept to the perimeter.
Minnesota got a final try on the power play late in regulation and couldn’t do anything with it. Boldy, Kaprizov and Eriksson Ek combined for just one point.
Zuccarello misses Game 2, Trenin injured
One reason things were so convoluted for the Wild was that Mats Zuccarello was out. One game after having three assists, Zuccarello missed Game 2 with an upper-body injury that a team source said was sustained on the elbow he took to the head from Myers early in Game 1.
Zuccarello’s absence meant Vladimir Tarasenko was on the top line, something the Wild tried in Nashville with three games left in the season. There was so little chemistry that Hynes separated the line by the second period, saying after that game that nothing was getting done.
In the third on Monday, Boldy replaced Tarasenko with Eriksson Ek at center. Hynes plans to do this throughout the postseason if the Wild are trailing late in games.
Ryan Hartman took Zuccarello’s spot on the power play, but had a rare off-game.
Brink replaced Zuccarello in the lineup, but the Wild were still one forward short because NHL hits leader Yakov Trenin was injured after defenseman Zach Bogosian sent him what was the epitome of a hospital pass. As Trenin was set to receive the pass late in the first period, Colin Blackwell nailed him with a perfectly timed shoulder check.
“Love to have that back,” Bogosian said. “Things happen quick out there certainly. Yeah, feel bad about it, for sure.”
After the contact, Blackwell’s helmet hit Trenin in the face, and he left the game holding a towel to it.
“I enjoy playing physical,” Blackwell said. “Trust me, I get hit all the time. In a series like this, in the playoffs and stuff, any time you get a chance to be physical, you get the opportunity to do so. Just so happened to be a big one. There’s a lot of other times where we’re trying to slow some of their big guys getting licks on our D. Any time you get a chance to lay a hit, when an opportunity presents itself, you take advantage of it.”
