Stars Break Wild Hearts in Double OT Thriller

The Dallas Stars weather the storm through a largely tilted two overtime periods and took Game 3 from the Minnesota Wild on a power play goal from Wyatt Johnston.

In a pivotal game with the series tied 1-1, the Stars and Wild played an ultra-competitive three periods of regulation before the Wild started tilting the ice in overtime. Dallas took advantage of a delay of game penalty from Danilla Yurov to seal the 4-3 win just past the halfway point of double overtime.

It was a sloppy game from both teams in terms of taking penalties, with Minnesota taking a whooping nine penalties, including two in double overtime. The Stars were not much better, taking eight minors that included two in the first overtime that they were able to survive. Dallas finished with three power play goals including the winner, and Minnesota tallied on one of them. Wildly enough, especially after the theatrics of Game 2, there were no penalties taken in post-whistle scrums.

Dallas kicked off the game in hostile territory with a quick two goal lead in the first period, with Mikko Rantanen quieting the crowd early on a tip-in power play goal. Jason Robertson added a snipe from a 2-on-1 situation.

The Stars absolutely dominated through the first period, but the Wild dashed their momentum late. Marcus Johansson scored on the power play shortly after Jake Oettinger made a ten-bell save to keep Minnesota scoreless, and the Wild finally got the raucous home crowd into the game.

Minnesota kept the momentum going in the second period, getting the tying goal from Joel Eriksson Ek on a beautiful drive and feed from Matt Boldy. Then, late in the second, Michael McCarron scored his first playoff goal on a long wrist shot that put the Wild ahead for the first time in the game.

Now with work to do in the third, the Stars had to survive through more pressure from the Wild, unable to generate many good opportunities to test Jesper Wallstedt in the Minnesota net. Finally with just under half the third period left, Rantanen made a beautiful hesitation move to free up Matt Duchene to convert on the power play from a tight angle, and the game was tied 3-3.

After tying the game, the Stars seemed to settle down defensively, and the team defense helped Oettinger make good but not extreme saves. That continued into overtime, where the Stars offense seemed to dry up.

Helped by two power plays, the Wild played almost exclusively on the attack, but Dallas defended hard and survived the tilted period. In double overtime, Dallas possessed the puck a lot more and had a couple of better chances, including a redirect from Radek Faksa that went through the crease behind Wallstedt, but wide of the net.

Bobby Brink had the best chance to end it for Minnesota when he batted a puck out of mid-air and just wide of Oettinger. It would have been close to a high stick if it had gone in, but play continued and Dallas eventually got their game winning power play on a delay of game penalty.

Johnston redirected a Miro Heiskanen shot from just in front of Wallstedt, and the puck floated gently over the glove hand and into the net, sending the Wild fans home heartbroken and the Stars into Game 4 with a 2-1 series lead.

Both Heiskanen and Quinn Hughes skated over 40 minutes in the game, with the top players for the Wild playing more lopsided minutes than the Stars, who mostly stayed with a rotation of four lines and three defense pairs throughout the game.

Luckily for both teams, a built-in two day rest will give some recuperation time before Game 4 on Saturday afternoon. Puck drop is at 4:30 p.m. and is televised nationally on TNT.

Make Sure You Bookmark THN's Dallas Stars site For The Latest News, Exclusive Interviews, Breakdowns, And So Much More.