The Minnesota Wild rallied to dump Dallas 6-5 in a shootout at American Airlines Center in Dallas on Sunday, squandering Roope Hintz’s second career hat-trick outing.
Shootout goals for the Wild came from Mats Zuccarello, Kirill Kaprizov, and Frédérick “Freddy” Gaudreau. Minnesota beat Dallas on Sunday despite coughing up a four-goal lead in the third period.
Kaprizov scored for the sixth straight game, giving him 12 points on the season, and Marc-Andre Fleury made 30 saves as the Wild (13-9-2) won their fourth straight game.
The Stars (14-6-5) have posted 10 of their last 11 games. Dallas holds a two-point lead over second-place Winnipeg in the Central with 33 points.
Hintz contributed an assist to his three-goal performance. Jason Robertson extended his point streak to 18 games with two points in the loss.
Robertson extended his team’s record-setting point streak to an NHL-best 18 games with his 23rd goal and an assist. The Stars’ Mason Marchment scored twice and added an assist in the loss.
WHAT TO KNOW
Minnesota took a 4-1 lead with three goals at 2:50 of the second period after Dallas goalie Jake Oettinger was yanked and replaced by Scott Wedgewood 29 seconds into the third before another Wild goal made it 5-1.
At 7:12, Hintz received a pass from Joe Pavelski over a sprawling Jon Merrill to cut the lead to 5-1.
Robertson scored 38 seconds later, stuffing his own rebound into the net to make the game 5-3.
Mason Marchment scored from the middle of the ice at 9:55 to get Dallas within a goal, 5-4.
At 1:59 into the third period, with Wedgewood pulled from the net for a man advantage for Dallas, Hintz finished his hat trick with a one-timer from just inside the left hash mark to knot the game at 5-5.
BY THE NUMBERS
Robertson has 21 goals and 13 assists for 34 points during his point streak.
The 98 goals for Dallas this season is tops in the NHL, while their penalty kill ranks fourth (83.7%), and power play ranks fifth (28.4%).
WHAT THEY SAID
“To tie it up there and force it to overtime says a lot about our group. Everyone believes in each other and knows that that next line can go get us something, either some momentum or a goal,” Stars defenseman Ryan Suter told NHL.com of the Dallas comeback.
“It’s 5-1 with 12 minutes left,” Stars’ coach Peter DeBoer said of his team’s rally. “We could be walking out of here with nothing. That’s a really critical point, and you can’t underestimate the fight in this group.”
NEXT UP
The Stars welcome the Toronto Maple Leafs (15-5-6) on Tuesday, starting at 7:30 p.m. The Leafs are 7-0-3 in their last 10 games and defeated the Stars 3-2 OT the last time the squads faced off on October 20.
