The Dallas Stars jumped out to an early lead against the Minnesota Wild and applied a dominating defense to smother any chance of a comeback by the Minnesota Wild late in the contest.
The Stars won by a final score of 7-2 at American Airlines Center in Dallas. The win was capped off with Nils Lundkvist’s first goal of the season, a milestone moment for the former New York Rangers defender.
Dallas took advantage of the Wild’s rookie goalkeeper Jesper Wallstedt making his debut NHL start.
“I was definitely nervous in the beginning,” Wallstedt said postgame. “I had a lot of pucks just bouncing off me. Didn’t feel like I could catch anything.”
The Stars have a 19-5 goal advantage over the Wild in three games this season, all wins for Dallas. On Wednesday, Joe Pavelski opened the scoring with a goal at 16:45 in the first with a shot from the right face-off circle. Matt Duchene added another goal at 4:28 in the second. Roope Hintz scored the third goal on a crossing pass from Mason Marchment, who had two assists in the game.
The Wilds’ Matt Boldy got Minnesota on the scoreboard with a goal off a deflection in the third.
Jason Robertson and Lundkvist then padded the Stars’ lead to 5-1.
Ryan Hartman put the final points on the board for the Wild on a 5-3 power play, slicing the puck past Stars goalkeeper Scott Wedgewood, who tallied 21 saves in the game.
“I held onto the first four or five [shots] that I needed to,” Wedgewood said. “They got a bounce on a 5-on-3. It’s just a good win. We’re happy with it.”
Tyler Seguin and Sam Steel added two goals to give the Stars a 7-2 victory. The Stars are now 24-11-5 on the season and are riding a two-win streak after knocking Minnesota off on Monday and Wednesday. The Stars trail the Western Conference Central Division-leading Winnipeg Jets and Colorado Avalanche by three games.
“We’ve been concentrating on [defense]. We need to play that way in front of our goaltenders to give ourselves a chance here,” Dallas coach Peter DeBoer said. “We’ve risen to the occasion.”
