Stars look to take back control of series against Wild in Game 4
Less than five minutes into Game 3, it looked like the series was as good as over. The Dallas Stars had a 2-0 lead in the series and the game, and the Minnesota Wild were on their way to 400 minutes of postseason hockey without a lead.
But by the end of the second period, that span was over, and 20 minutes later, so was a six-game playoff losing streak. Rather than being up against a potential sweep, the Wild host the Stars in Game 4 on Wednesday night with a shot at evening the Western Conference playoff series many would have picked to be over first.
After Monday's 5-3 loss in Minnesota, Stars coach Lindy Ruff conceded the series could stretch on.
"It could be a heck of a series," Ruff said. "The parity in this league is incredible, and if you don't play well you're not going to win."
Dallas took control with two early goals from Patrick Sharp, but Minnesota's Chris Porter scored in the final minute of the period. After a pep talk from coach John Torchetti during the intermission, Erik Haula and Jason Pominville put the Wild in the lead.
"Leaders calm the group down and then we go," Haula told the team's official website. "It was 2-1, 40 minutes of hockey left. There's really not much (to say), everybody knows what to do, everybody knows when we're playing well, and everyone knows what it looks like."
Mikko Koivu extended the lead, and after Colton Sceviour cut Dallas' deficit in half with 6:15 to go, Pominville restored the two-goal advantage with an empty-netter.
Pominville also had an assist after being limited to two points in his previous nine playoff games. Koivu, the team's points leader, had gone five postseason contests without a point.
"We could have easily (folded)," Pominville said. "We could have done that a while ago, too. We're not that type of group. We're not that group that's going to fold. We're going to keep fighting and keep pushing."
The first two games followed the Wild's five-game losing streak to end the regular season, so the win let them avoid matching their worst skid of the season. It was just their second win in eight games against Dallas this season.
The Stars, meanwhile, had gone 11-2-0 over the previous month while never allowing more than three goals prior to Monday.
"We didn't play near as well as we needed to play," Ruff told the team's official website. "Probably as bad as I've seen us play in maybe five weeks."
Jamie Benn had an assist to give him a series-high five points, and the Dallas points leader has 18 on an 11-game streak against the Wild. For Sharp, it was his third two-goal playoff game against the Wild and eighth overall.
Pominville's was just the 11th in franchise history for Minnesota. Two of those belong to Zach Parise, the Wild's injured top scorer.
But both teams have been without key players. For Minnesota, Parise and Thomas Vanek are yet to play due to upper-body injuries, and there hasn't been any encouraging news for either. Dallas' Tyler Seguin, who played in Game 2 after missing a month with an Achilles injury, didn't travel with the team for Game 3 and is considered day to day.
In goal, Dallas had been thrilled with the play of Kari Lehtonen prior to allowing four goals on 24 shots in Game 3. Even so, he's 7-2-0 with a 1.79 goals-against average and .932 save percentage over the last month.
Minnesota's Devan Dubnyk faced 17 shots for his lightest workload in a full game since October to end a six-game losing streak. The 1-6-0 span over his last eight games comes with a 2.83 GAA and .883 save percentage.
