The Minnesota Wild outplayed, outbattled and outgoalied the Dallas Stars. Jake Oettinger's play reminded everyone of what happened last year, but it's up to the coach to correct course.
The Minnesota Wild made the Dallas Stars look like the underdogs in Game 1 of the playoffs.
And Dallas' goaltending was not up to par as Minnesota took the first-round lead.
The Stars' home-ice advantage meant nothing five minutes in when the Wild struck first in Saturday's highly anticipated contest. It especially meant nothing when they pounced on Dallas for three goals early in the second period en route to a 6-1 win.
Stars coach Glen Gulutzan needs to figure out in a hurry how to counter the speed, skill and solid goaltending the Wild showed in the opening game of the series. It is his biggest challenge yet since replacing Peter DeBoer ahead of this season.
It was tough to remember the Stars finished the season third overall, because the seventh-placed Wild made them look flat despite the shots being 29-28 for Minnesota. They also lit up a goalie who was infamously pulled early in a do-or-die Game 6 of last year's Western Conference final and criticized by then-coach Peter DeBoer post-game.
With Gulutzan replacing DeBoer this season, the new coach must quickly correct the path for his team before they lose another game at home and head to St. Paul down 2-0.
Gulutzan chose not to yank Oettinger, who allowed five goals on 28 shots.
"Nothing for me was on our goaltending," Gulutzan told reporters post-game. "For me, it was on, certainly our specialty teams need to be better. Our 5-on-5 play wasn't good enough... We got to get our nose over the puck a little bit more."
A tic-tac-toe play to open the scoring in the first and a deflection off a one-timer for Minnesota's third goal weren't on Oettinger. But ultimately, he finished with 2.66 goals saved below expected, according to moneypuck.com, which suggests at least two goals should have been stopped. For example, superstar right winger Kirill Kaprizov beat the 6-foot-6 Oettinger clean over his shoulder early in the second.
Kaprizov had a goal and three points, while left winger Matt Boldy and center Joel Eriksson Ek each had two goals and three points.
The Stars need to ratchet up their defense around Oettinger. Minnesota showed them how it was done, outblocking Dallas 18-8 and winning puck battles left and right.
"You can't get your game going if you're not going to win battles," Gulutzan said. "You can take any metric, and if you lose skating battles and puck battles, you're always on the receiving end of everything negative."
It's clear that Gulutzan knows what his players need to do to bounce back in Game 2. It's crucial they execute, because going down 2-0 in the series and beating the Wild in four of five games would be a nearly impossible task for Dallas.
But ultimately, the Stars must get a better effort out of Oettinger, who we're certain still remembers the harsh critique DeBoer made of him after the Stars were eliminated last year.
Oettinger wasn't the sole cause of Saturday's loss, but he was outduelled by Wild rookie Jesper Wallstedt in his first career playoff game.
The 23-year-old Wallstedt showed terrific poise and appeared to get stronger as the game went on. Dallas outshot Minnesota 12-5 in the third period and had seven high-danger chances, according to naturalstattrick.com. But Wallstedt stopped everything after a late second-period goal for Dallas, and he finished with a .964 save percentage and 1.73 goals saved above expected.
"(Wallstedt) looked solid, certainly, but we didn't test him at all through the first two periods," Gulutzan said. "We got some residual when they sat back in the third, but when you're sitting back in the third, and the pressure's not on, it's kind of house money, right?"
The first game of any series involves the team feeling each other out, but the Wild quickly imposed their will on the Stars early on in Game 1.
Now, the focus for Gulutzan's Stars is on not letting the Wild's top players make them look like students needing another lesson. And Oettinger (or backup Casey DeSmith) can help the team rebound and even the series at a game apiece.
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