The Crazy, Physical, Action-Packed Game 1 Wild @ Stars

The Minnesota Wild and Dallas Stars first round Stanley Cup Playoff series started last night at nearly 9:00pm Central Time (to much dismay of Minnesota Sports fans with day jobs).

This is the Wild's 10th playoff appearance in the last 11 years and Dallas' 6th in the past 10 years.

The first period was dominated by the Wild. I believe they had triple the shots on goal towards the end of the 1st. The first goal of the game was scored by Kirill Kaprizov on the powerplay after redirecting a shot from Jared Spurgeon late in the first.

The 2nd period is where things started to get chippy. A few wild penalties put Dallas on the board twice with goals from 2 of their first line forwards Roope Hintz and Jason Robertson.

From here the game started to get more and more physical with the hits coming more often. Especially a massive hit by Matt Dumba midway through the 2nd that set the tone for the entire series. Joe Pavelski skated deep into the Wild zone and passed the puck behind the net for a teammate. As he passed it Dumba moved in and laid a slightly late shoulder-shoulder hit on Pavelski. Pavelski appeared to be out before hitting the ice, then his head hitting the ice. The officiating crew did not call a penalty on this hit, but play was shortly stopped by Max Domi flying in to start throwing punches at Dumba. Several other scraps began on the side as well. After breaking everyone up the officials stated there was a major penalty on the ice that was under review. Finally after a nearly 5 minute break to review the incident, the officials deemed Dumba's hit a penalty, but not a major. Dumba and Domi were both booked for 2-minute roughing minors, as well as Domi getting tossed with a 10-minute misconduct for continuing to fight. This incident set the tone for not only the night, but the entire series.

My Take: Dumba's hit was clean. A shoulder to shoulder hit that unfortunately resulted in Pevelski getting hurt. I think the officials got it right in this situation. Domi continued when told to stop. Dumba and Domi getting offset penalties making the game 4 on 4 for 2 minutes is the right call in my eyes

Shortly after the Dumba hit, Sam Steel found himself on a breakaway and hit the top shelf to tie the game 2-2 with his first career playoff goal.

The third period was dominated by the Stars, who had the puck in the Wild zone for over 2/3 of the period. The Stars found plenty of opportunities that were stopped, blocked, or broken up by Wild defensemen Spergeon, Faber, Middleton, and Dumba. Gustavsson in his first career playoff game also had several huge saves as well as Stars goalie Jake Oettinger when the Wild found a chance or two in the 3rd. Dallas hit a post or 2 on the one powerplay they got in the 3rd period. Throughout the third period, Ryan Suter took 2-3 cheap shots at Kaprizov, crossing checking him in the ribs. Marcus Foligno scrapped with Suter towards the end of the 3rd as a result, but kept composure due to the state of the game. The 3rd ended with both teams still at 2 goals a piece.

Overtime began with a lot of Dallas offensive zone time, peppering Gustavsson with shots to no avail. Jared Spurgeon picked up a slashing penalty putting Dallas on the powerplay halfway through overtime. The penalty was promptly killed by a surprisingly agile Wild PK seeing as they had played 70 minutes of hockey at this point. The rest of overtime was still mainly dominated by Dallas with a few Wild opportunities here and there. With mere seconds remaining a very poor no call by the officials occurred when Boldy pretty blatantly tripped a player on the Stars. No one was able to get a puck into the back of the net in overtime, so another period was needed.

2OT begins with the Wild looking a little bit better than the first overtime period, but were still ultimately getting dominated again. The way I put 2OT to my friends last night was "The Stars are getting more chances, but the Wild are getting better chances" The Stars just about sealed the game on a chip shot by Mason Marchment, but was robbed by Brock Faber who was able to get a stick on it to ramp it over the net. About halfway through the second overtime period, Freddy Gadreau got his stick stuck in the skates of a Stars forward and was called for tripping. The Stars started the powerplay firing away on Gustavsson, a few clutch saves, post shot, and a Marcus Folgino desperation poke check later and the Wild killed another Stars PP. Deep in the Stars zone they attempted to clear the puck, but it was caught by Ryan Hartman who skated across the net and buried his first game winning overtime goal of his career to give the Wild a 1-0 lead in the series.

A fast, physical game sets the tone for a rough first round matchup between the Wild and Stars.

Game 2 will take place at the same time 8:30pm Central Standard Time on Wednesday 4/19 in Dallas

Player Profiles:

Matt Dumba

Dumba had one of his best games in a long time. It all rooted off the hit in the second, which lit a fire under him that lasted until the very last minute of the game. Dumba played 38:31 of total ice time and was impactful on both sides of the puck. He delivered 5 shots on net, which I believe were all from the blue line, a few of them almost tipped in. He also made numerous amounts of big defensive stops as sketchy as some of his plays were, they worked last night.

Brock Faber

Faber was playing in the NCAA National Championship Game less than 2 weeks ago and anyone that doesn't know who he is wouldn't be able to tell. The kid looks like a real pro out there. Winning 1v2 board battles, making big stops, and game saving pokes. Evason has a real hockey player on his hands and I don't think Faber is going to be sitting on the bench anytime soon, even if Klingberg returns

Jason Robertson and Karill Kaprizov

I am grouping these guys together because it was 2021 Calder Winner vs 2021 Calder Runner Up. Both players were average last night. They both scored a goal each, but weren't huge parts of the game. Neither player made a huge error or a huge play, besides each of their goals. Both players also looked completely gassed midway through the first overtime.

Roope Hintz

Hintz is going to be a problem for the Wild in this series, especially if Pavelski misses time. Hintz only had 3 shots on net last night, but he was all over the ice creating chances during powerplays. The Wild will need to find a way to shut him down.

Filip Gustavsson and Jake Oettinger

I think we truly saw a battle of the 2 best goalies in the league last night. They both came up huge and kept their teams in the game time and time again. The teams both have a day of rest in between games, and there is no reason either should be on the bench in game 2.