Wild fall 6-1 to Stars in second preseason game
© Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports. - Wild fall 6-1 to Stars in second preseason gameThe Minnesota Wild lost 6-1 to the Dallas Stars on the road Tuesday night inside American Airlines Center in their second preseason game of the season after defeating the Colorado Avalanche 4-3 on Sunday afternoon.
The contest also marked the first meeting between the clubs since the Stars eliminated the Wild in six games in the playoffs in April. The Wild scored the lone first-period goal thanks to roster hopeful Jujhar Khaira — who slammed home a loose puck in the crease for his second goal of the preseason — assisted by Jake Lucchini and Adam Beckman.
This is certainly the type of preseason results Khaira, who's having a good training camp, needs if he wants the Wild to carry him as their 13th forward this season. And it's not even a guarantee Minnesota does carry an extra forward.
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After Khaira opened the scoring, Dallas scored six unanswered goals. Joe Pavelski, Jason Robertson and Evgenii Dadonov each scored in the second, while Mason Marchment, Tyler Seguin and Dadonov scored in the third.
Marc-Andre Fleury started and had 20 saves on 23 shots in 34 minutes, and Gustavsson saved eight of 11 in 26 minutes. It wasn't a special teams night for the Wild, who allowed two power play goals and went 0-for-3 on the man advantage themselves.
The postive in the loss?
The Marcus Johansson, Joel Eriksson Ek and Matt Boldy line picked up where they left off last season even though they didn't find the scoresheet. The trio combined for 12 shots, seven of which came from Eriksson Ek. The Wild held a 69.91 expected goals rate and finished with 55.56 percent of the Corsi share at five-on-five with the line on the ice, according to Natural Stat Trick.
The Wild controlled play at five-on-five with 52.44 percent of the Corsi share and 56.42 percent of the expected goal share, according to Natural Stat Trick.
Unlike the Wild, the Stars' lineup featured a bulk of their top guns like Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin, Pavelski, Robertson and Miro Heiskanen. Dallas also played some of their everyday depth players and a newcomer in Matt Duchene and roster hopeful Logan Stankoven, the Stars' 2021 second-round pick.
On the other hand, a majority of the Wild's lineup didn't play Tuesday night.
Box score
Shots — Wild, 35-34
Blocked shots — Wild, 8-7
Hits — Wild, 23-13
Faceoffs — Stars, 34/60 (57%)