Decades of waiting end as the Wild triumph, snapping an 11-year playoff round curse fueled by clutch scoring and suffocating defense.
ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Minnesota Wild (4-2) has done it. It was just the second time in its playoff history that the Wild had a 3-2 series lead and the first since 2015 when they advanced to the second round.
It has been 4,022 days since the Wild won a round. 11 years. That streak snapped tonight when Quinn Hughes scored the first and the game-winner.
It has been so long since the Wild won a round that current captain Jared Spurgeon, was just 25-years old.
Jesper Wallstedt, who won four games in the series, was just 12 when the Wild won a playoff round. Hughes was only 15.
When the Wild acquired Hughes the talk of the town was the Wild might actually win a round. In his NHL career, Hughes had never lost in the first round of the playoffs. That streak has continued.
Hughes, 26, has two goals six assists in six games of the playoffs. He factored in on each of the first three goals the Wild scored in the 5-2 win over Dallas.
The Dallas Stars had been in that spot and had forced nine game sevens before when trailing 3-2. They did not in this one.
Only four goals at 5-on-5 for Dallas in the entire series. The Wild suffocated the Stars at even-strength.
Even though Minnesota allowed ten power-play goals in the series, Wallstedt and the rest of the team shut them down.
And when it mattered most, Hughes stepped up.
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