Takeaways: Oettinger’s resilience leads Stars over Wild in Game 2

After stumbling out of the gates in Saturday night’s series-opener, the Dallas Stars showed up Monday night and took back a little control with a 4-2 victory to even up the first-round series before it shifts to Minnesota. 

Dallas learned the hard way in Game 1 that there’s no slowing down the Wild. You can only hope to match their pace. And on Monday night, they won the race, all while matching the hockey world’s expectations of what this series should be. 

It helped that the Stars received a major boost in net with a bounce-back performance by goaltender Jake Oettinger. 

Blame for Saturday’s lop-sided loss wasn’t squarely on Oettinger — that was a true team-effort — but much like the rest of the roster, the No. 1 netminder’s play didn’t bode well for the series ahead. Oettinger looked shaky at times, as though perhaps a few ghosts of series past had come back to haunt him. Or, more realistically, as though his season-low regular-season save percentage might get worse under the brighter lights of the playoffs. 

But the Oettinger we saw in Monday night’s victory looked like a man who’d put those struggles behind him. He was sharp right from the start, not only staving off an early Minnesota attack but shifting the momentum in the first period. Dallas’s first goal of the night would never have happened without Oettinger’s clutch save on a point-blank snipe from Danila Yurov. The stop led to a quick rush in the opposite direction for the Stars and a noticeable shift in momentum as Wyatt Johnston cashed in on a lucky bounce off the end board behind Wild goalie Jesper Wallstedt. 

That might have been Oettinger’s best save of the night. Or perhaps that title goes to his glove save on a Matt Boldy backhand later in the frame — one of five saves against the winger on Monday — that would have seen the Wild take a 2-1 lead. Or maybe it was his save on Boldy’s breakaway opportunity a few minutes later. Minnesota excels at finding cracks and breaking them wide open, but Oettinger’s resilience was strong enough to keep the Wild from mustering up the kind of momentum that saw them cruise to victory on Saturday. It was on full display during the Wild’s final push to tie things up, too, but even after allowing Minnesota to climb back to within one goal halfway through the third period, Oettinger stood tall. 

At the other end of the ice, Wallstedt put up another strong performance — he stopped 28 of 31 shots. But this was Oettinger’s night, and the series now shifts to a best-of-five because of it.

Puck luck sides with Stars

While it clearly took some extremely clutch performances, especially from the man in the blue paint, for Dallas to even up the series on Monday night, it also took a touch of luck. The hockey god sided with the home team in Dallas. 

Take their game-opening goal, for example, which saw Johnston fire a puck just behind the net only to see it take a lucky bounce off the end board, then deflect off Wallstedt and in to give Dallas the game’s early lead. 

Look closely at the trajectory of Johnston’s empty-netter insurance goal in the dying minutes of the game, and you could argue a lucky bounce may have been the difference there, too. It certainly fooled Quinn Hughes, who was in hot pursuit of the puck as it rolled down the ice towards Minnesota’s wide-open cage, but slowed slightly in anticipation of it going just wide before it curled into the net. 

The Hughes-Faber pairing is the best in hockey

We’re watching a masterclass of blue-line chemistry every time Quinn Hughes and Brock Faber are on the ice — which, according to Monday’s ice-time totals of 28:35 and 26:42, respectively, was pretty often. 

Minnesota’s top defence pairing has been elite ever since the two teamed up following Hughes’ move from Vancouver, with Faber’s offensive game blossoming. That was certainly the case Monday night in Dallas, with the duo combining on both of Minnesota’s goals in the 4-2 loss. In addition to leading the team in shots (6), Faber registered both goals — the first and second playoff goals of his career. After being held without a point in his first two trips to the playoffs, Faber now has three in two games. 

The defencemen had their fingerprints all over Saturday’s series-opening victory, too, though not in as obvious a way. Their ability to drive play from the blue line, orchestrate entries with seeming ease, and keep Dallas’ top stars (mostly) in check is unmatched. Two games in, it feels like the Wild will go as far as Hughes and Faber will take them. And we’ve only just seen the beginning. 

Minnesota misses Zuccarello 

Forward Mats Zuccarello was ruled out of Game 2 with an upper-body injury. The announcement came as a bit of a surprise, as Zuccarello participated in the Wild’s morning skate Monday but was later listed as day-to-day, with Bobby Brink suiting up in his place. 

Zuccarello’s playmaking was missed on Monday, and never more than during Minnesota’s power plays. The winger’s pass-first game is a significant driver of the Wild’s third-ranked PP. Two of his three helpers in Game 1 came with the man advantage. Without the veteran in the lineup, Minnesota did not convert on any of its four PP opportunities. His status for Game 3 will be closely watched, as will that of Yakov Trenin. Trenin was seriously shaken up after taking a blistering (but clean) open-ice hit from Stars forward Colin Blackwell late in the first period. He was slow to get up, and went straight to the dressing room and did not return. Trenin led the league in hits this season and, despite Monday’s early exit, leads the category in the post-season, too (tied with teammate Marcus Foligno’s 16). His physical presence was missed following his departure.