Stars Win At Minnesota
SAINT PAUL, Minn. — The Dallas Stars have found an unconventional formula for success on the road in Minnesota this season: Dig an early hole and forcefully climb out of it.
Trailing by a pair of goals early, the Stars stormed back for a 6-3 victory over the Wild on Monday. It was the second time this season they’ve won in Minnesota after falling behind by two or more goals in the game.
Defenseman Jordie Benn and centers Vernon Fiddler and Tyler Seguin all scored in a 4:30 span late in the second period, erasing Minnesota’s 2-0 lead, and giving the Stars (25-7-2) their third win over the Wild this season.
Left winger Antoine Roussel added a third-period goal, while center Cody Eakin and Fiddler scored empty-net goals late for Dallas, which is on a two-game winning streak. Goalie Antti Niemi didn’t start, but finished with 30 saves for Dallas to earn the victory. He replaced Kari Lehtonen, who was lifted after allowing two goals on four shots.
“I love the way our team came out in the second and the third,” said Stars coach Lindy Ruff. “There’s going to be lots more challenges and you approach them one game at a time. We knew it would be an emotional game for them and knew they were going to try to be physical and we answered it.”
Minnesota defenseman Jared Spurgeon and center Charlie Coyle scored early, but the
Wild saw a lead slip away versus Dallas for the second time in a month. The Wild (17-9-6) trailed 4-2 when right winger Nino Niederreiter scored midway through the third period to make it interesting.
Goalie Devan Dubnyk finished with 28 saves for Minnesota, which has lost two in a row after a streak where the Wild had earned at least a point in nine straight games.
“The last couple of games haven’t been good enough by our standards,” Minnesota coach Mike Yeo. “This is what you worry about when you kind of get on a little bit of a streak and things are going well and you score a bunch of goals at home. You worry about what that’s going to do to the group.”
The Wild led Dallas 3-0 in the third period on Nov. 28 at home, but fell 4-3 in overtime.
“That’s obviously not the game plan,” said Fiddler of the early deficits in Minnesota. “They got a couple good shots. We had some good looks too. We came in after the first and knew we had to execute a little more and we just wanted to stick with it. We went into the second and got a few breaks there and we’re right back in it, and came into the third with a lead.”
Lehtonen was playing in his 16th game of the season for Dallas, but he didn’t make it to the second TV timeout after Minnesota scored on two of its first four shots.
Spurgeon started things off with a rising shot that fooled Lehtonen up high and caught the corner of the net, giving the Wild a quick 1-0 lead at 4:57 of the first period.
With the Stars pressuring a few minutes later, the Wild were able to chip the puck out of their zone and key a three-on-one break with right winger Justin Fontaine dishing a pass to Coyle. As he came across the blue line, Coyle snapped off a wrist shot that fooled Lehtonen on the glove side.
It was the last shot Lehtonen would face, as Niemi came on in relief just 8:16 into the game.
Niemi was tested right away but managed to turn aside a breakaway by Wild left winger Zach Parise to keep the score 2-0 after 20 minutes.
“It’s nice jumping off to a 2-0 lead, especially against a team like that, and get rewarded right away,” said Coyle, who had three shots in the opening period. “But I think our sense of urgency kind of dropped and we stopped going as hard for pucks, and winning those loose puck battles and what we were doing before to make us successful.”
Dallas got on the board with 5:01 left in the second period when Benn ripped a low shot from the blue line that found a route through a crowd in front of Dubnyk and caught the lower right corner of the net. It was the first goal of the season for Benn, who noted the sudden momentum change.
“Once you get this crowd out of the game, it goes our way pretty good,” Benn said.
The Stars took a 3-2 lead with a pair of goals in the final 90 seconds of the second period.
First, Fiddler scored on a power play when he was the second player to redirect a shot from defenseman Alex Goligoski.
And with just over 30 seconds to play, Seguin capitalized on a turnover by the Wild, getting the puck all alone in front of Dubnyk and popping a wrist shot that eluded the goalie’s glove.
