The Minnesota Wild were back to pretty much full strength going into this one besides Mason Shaw, who announced the famous "Let's play hockey!" for the Wild last night. Hartman, Erikson Ek, and Klingberg were all in, and boy did it help the Wild.
About 7 seconds into his first shift Erikson Ek came of the ice, walked down the tunnel, and never returned. I know he really wanted to get out there and help his team, but maybe he just wasn't ready. The Wild are going to monitor it and see what happens. If he reaggravated it, he could be done for the season or at least the first one or two playoffs rounds.
Mats Zuccarello put the first points on the board in the first period and gave the Wild a 1-0 lead pretty early. The game stayed 1-0 for awhile as the Wild won the battle most of the first period. Towards the end of the period the Wild were on a 2-2 rush when Johansson scored the nastiest goal I have seen in awhile, passing to himself behind the back of the Stars defender and beating Oettenger blocker side to put the Wild up 2-0. Here is clip of it, because you really need to see it to know how gross it was.
Before you could even look away though, Dallas stormed back with a goal of their own from Luke Glendening, keeping it close at the end of the first 2-1.
From the 2nd period on, the game was all Minnesota. Completely dominating Dallas in both zones. Filip Gustavsson actually said after the game that it was a little boring at times. He said there were very few "high pressure" moments he had to be apart of, because the defense played so well. Marcus Foligno scored the next goal of a tip that was very close to being high sticking. They actually called the goal off originally, but after review gave the goal to Foligno. 3-1 Wild.
Moving into the third period, the Wild continued to dominate Dallas, shutting them down on the few powerplays they did have, which is important and I will get to that later. Zuccarello found the net again making it 4-1 and the game was just a formality at that point. Dallas pulled the goalie early and Ryan Hartman shot a cross ice open net goal to seal the deal.
After the Foligno goal, there was no real feeling of pressure at all. The game honestly got a bit boring, which is fine if you're a Wild fan. Minnesota sports fans will take any win we can get. A huge key to Minnesota winning this game was shutting down the Dallas' powerplay and staying more disciplined than they have. If the Wild can keep Dallas off the powerplay, they should find more success in the series. Dallas has been terrible at 5 on 5 hockey in this series and the Wild exploited that last night. Game 4 is in St. Paul again on Sunday night, starting earlier this time (thank god) at 5:30pm CT
Player Profiles
Dallas Stars
Honestly, I really don't have much to say about Dallas in this game. Glendening and Oettenger might be the only two players I can say anything about. Gledening had the only Dallas goal and played a decent game. Oettenger made plenty of fantastic saves, preventing this game from being an absolute embarrassment, but one thing is for sure, someone needs to find Jason Robertson because he is missing in action.
Mats Zuccarello
I felt like Zuccarello was missing from the first 2 games as well. Wild reporters asked Dean after Game 2 how Zucc is going to come back and get involved in the series. Dean said he is a pro hockey player he will find it. Well find it he did because Zuccarello was everywhere on the ice and scored the 2 goals. Crazy comeback game for Mats.
Marcus Johansson
I feel like I have to make a profile for Johansson every game. The question is will it be good or bad? Well this time its fantastic. He didn't make any solo skates up the middle of the ice like in game 2. He scored one of the nastiest goals I have seen this year. He was just solid last night.
Marcus Foligno
All. Everything. Yes. He did it all last night. Policed the Ice. Scored. Defended. All of it was great.
Filip Gustavsson
He didn't do much of anything because his defense was so good, but you have to wonder if just his presence and chemistry with the team contributes to that or not. The Wild seem like a different team when he is in net.
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