Wild at Stars
The Minnesota Wild knew they were facing a daunting task going up against the Western Conference's best team and that point was driven home by the Dallas Stars in Game 1 of their best-of-seven first-round series. Dallas breezed to a 4-0 victory on Thursday night and looks to take a commanding 2-0 lead in Saturday night's Game 2 over the visiting Wild.
Minnesota scored only six goals during a season-ending five-game losing streak and mustered only 22 shots on goal in Thursday's loss, prompting coach John Torchetti to shuffle his lines at Friday's practice. "The most important thing we got to understand is we can play with these guys, we can beat these guys," Wild goaltender Devan Dubnyk said after the team's fifth consecutive postseason defeat. "There's no reason to think otherwise." Minnesota's task could become more daunting with the expected return of Stars forward Tyler Seguin to the lineup. Seguin, who missed the final 10 games of the regular season with a sliced Achilles tendon, finished tied for second on the team with 33 goals.
TV: 8 p.m. ET, NBCSN, Sportsnet, TVAS 2, FSN North/Wisconsin (Minnesota), FSN Southwest (Dallas)
ABOUT THE WILD: Minnesota's offensive woes are magnified by the injuries to leading goal scorer Zach Parise and Thomas Vanek, who combined for 94 points this season, but forward Erik Haula is planning to return to the lineup after missing the series opener due to a lower-body injury. “It’s a challenge," said Haula, who has registered 21 points in 27 games since Torchetti took over the coaching reins. "We came here for a split and I think everyone should just be positive and create a positive environment just overall everywhere of being able to accomplish the goal,” he said. Dubnyk was not as practice Friday, although Torchetti said his absence was simply due to "maintenance reasons."
ABOUT THE STARS: Dallas has won 11 of 13 games since the injury to Seguin, who has amassed 107 goals in his three seasons with the Stars and said his condition is "night and day" since he returned to practice with the club on Monday. "Well, for me there's no comparison," coach Lindy Ruff said after Friday's practice. "Like I said, I thought his first day out on the ice he was OK, and today he just seems to be a lot more fluid, lot more jump, no hesitation. Like I said, those couple extra days are doing him well." Ruff did not disclose his starting goaltender for Game 2, but Kari Lehtonen's second career playoff shutout made it a tougher choice between him and the more experienced Antti Niemi.
OVERTIME
1. Stars captain Jamie Benn has five goals and three assists in seven postseason games.
2. Wild F Charlie Coyle, a 21-goal scorer, is mired in a 19-game drought.
3. Lehtonen is 7-1-0 with a 1.76 goals-against average in his last eight appearances.