The Minnesota Wild are looking to eliminate the Dallas Stars in six at home and advance to the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs to square off against the Colorado Avalanche.

Can they do it? Follow along as we cover the game live. The Dallas Stars have advanced to the Western Conference Finals in each of the past three seasons, so they will absolutely not go down without a fight.

The Stars made defenseman Tyler Myers, whom they acquired from the Vancouver Canucks at the trade deadline, a healthy scratch, and slid in Alex Petrovic into the lineup.

Nearly four minutes into the game, Quinn Hughes carried the puck along the blue line with Wyatt Johnston in pursuit and fired a quick wrist shot on Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger, who made the save.

Moments later at 6:23, Hughes snapped another shot over Oettinger’s glove to give the Wild a 1–0 lead.

At 8:59 of the period, Minnesota nearly doubled the lead on a 2-on-1 rush, but Oettinger stacked the pads to deny Marcus Foligno, who ended up tumbling over him as the score remained 1–0.

Marcus Foligno was taking no prisoners out there—literally or otherwise. Within seconds of each other, he delivered a pair of punishing hits, first driving Esa Lindell hard into the boards, then moments later leveling Mikko Rantanen.

The former Avalanche forward was left down on one knee, slow to get back up, looking like he’d just served a sentence he didn’t sign up for. Rantanen eventually headed down the tunnel following the hit as Minnesota continued to apply heavy physical pressure.

In the closing minutes of the frame, Petrovic delivered a hard hit on Nick Foligno along the Wild bench. Foligno, the brother of Marcus, appeared shaken up as he made his way slowly to the bench and was attended to by a trainer.

The Wild carried a 1–0 lead into the intermission as we head to the second period.

The second period opened with a pair of penalties. Stars forward Matt Duchene was called for cross-checking Zach Bogosian, though replays suggested there was little, if any, contact on the play. After Dallas killed off the penalty, Minnesota handed them a chance of their own when Yakov Trenin was assessed an interference minor after colliding with Lian Bichsel off the draw.

Dallas, however, got a boost in multiple ways. Mikko Rantanen returned to the game and immediately made his presence felt, assisting Wyatt Johnston on a power play goal to tie things at 1–1. The Stars entered the night having scored just over 69% of their postseason goals on the man advantage, and it didn’t take long for that unit to deliver again, as Johnston buried a one-timer from the slot to pull Dallas level.

Minnesota went to the power play with 7:05 remaining in the second period after Radek Faksa was called for holding Jake Middleton. Just 1:03 into the man advantage, Mats Zuccarello — who posted three points in Game 1 of the series — ripped a shot from the slot that clipped Jake Oettinger’s shoulder and rang off the crossbar. It was a near miss that brought the crowd to life, but it ultimately stood as Minnesota’s best chance of the power play, as Dallas held firm the rest of the way.

With under four minutes remaining in the period, Dallas and Minnesota traded goals just 54 seconds apart.

The Stars grabbed a 2–1 lead when Mavrik Bourque made a slick play around Jesper Wallstedt and tucked a shot into an open net. The sequence began with Michael Bunting dumping the puck in deep before Ilya Lyubushkin won the race to it and quickly fed Bourque in front. Bourque then baited Wallstedt out of his crease, shifted to his left, and calmly finished the chance.

Minnesota answered less than a minute later. Vladimir Tarasenko scored his first goal of the postseason — and the 50th playoff goal of his career — when he beat Jake Oettinger with a backhand finish to tie the game at 2–2. The pass was not cleanly delivered, but Tarasenko stayed with the play and, from his knees, redirected the puck home as Oettinger anticipated it going the other direction, turning it into a highlight-reel finish.

After 40 minutes of play, Game 6 remained deadlocked.

The Wild suffered a major blow in the opening moments of the third period when Joel Eriksson Ek lost an edge while forechecking and crashed hard into the boards. He was slow to get up and needed assistance getting off the ice with what appeared to be a lower-body injury.

Both teams then traded a series of penalties. Mikko Rantanen cross-checked Kirill Kaprizov up high but was ultimately sent to the box for roughing, while Ryan Hartman was called for hooking Radek Faksa during a Minnesota power play. Unfortunately for Hartman, the infraction came directly in front of an official. In the end, neither team was able to capitalize, and play returned to 5-on-5.

Quinn Hughes thought his first goal was so nice that he had to do it twice. With 9:22 remaining in regulation, and with plenty of time and space, Hughes fired a slap pass that deflected off Ilya Lyubushkin’s skate and past Jake Oettinger to give Minnesota a 3–2 lead.

Facing elimination, the Stars pulled Oettinger as we approached the three minute to go mark in regulation.