Game 16 AfterThoughts: New (Old) Jerseys, Same (Old) Result for Dallas in Minnesota
There was some chatter this morning about the Minnesota Wild wearing their North Stars throwback sweaters, by which I mean the baffling amalgamation of imagery that is their current logo, but on a kelly green and yellow color palette.
It’s always been a bit of a weird choice by Minnesota to hearken back to the North Stars days when they haven’t even retired the North Stars numbers, though. I mean, for crying out loud, Brock Faber is wearing Neal Broten’s number 7, which is just really weird to see when they were their fake throwbacks. I personally couldn’t care less whether the Wild want to channel nostalgia or not, but it’s odd for them to try to summon some collective fond memories about a team the city refused to come watch and that no local owners stepped up to save.
But anyway, the rivalry between the two teams at this point is more about recent playoff series than 1993, I think. And from the drop, it was plain to see that neither team needed any encouragement to get up and at ’em.
For Dallas, Matt Dumba and Mavrik Bourque drew back in, whereas Colin Blackwell and Nils Lundkvist were scratched. For Lundkvist, it’s not terribly surprising, as the Lindell-Heiskanen pairing necessitates one of the three Stars’ RHDs being scratched, and Ilya Lyubushkin is simply too reliable at this point to be in that conversation. But it is sobering to realize that Lundkvist, to a certain extent, may not actually be able to play his way into an everyday spot at this point, just because of the nature of the roster.
As for Blackwell, I think this is closer to his Sam Steel/Radek Faksa scratch from last year than it is an indication that he’s on the outs. he did have a bad mistake on one of the Boston goals on Thursday, but he’s also been one of the most consistent spark plugs on the fourth line for most of the year. But all told, he’s a perfectly fine player to miss a few games over the course of 82. It’s all fine. Depth in a roster means tough decisions sometimes.
Minnesota, of course, was lacking Mats Zuccarello, who underwent surgery after getting hit in the gentleman’s region the other night, and he’ll be out for a month. Joel Eriksson Ek and Jonas Brodin are also ailing, which made for a pretty sparse roster for the Wild going into Saturday night’s tilt.
And as you might expect, the game started with some mistakes by both sides in the first, which isn’t uncommon when both teams are a little extra amped up for the contest. But the amped-up nature of things would become clearer before too much time went by.
After a couple of close calls in the Dallas end, Mason Marchment drew a tripping call to put Dallas on the job. But despite an immediate shot off the post by Miro Heiskanen (with a good Jamie Benn screen set up), Dallas couldn’t snap the Wild’s penalty-kill streak at 15.
As expected, the Duchene line continued to look like the best line in the game, spending the entirety of one of Liam Öhgren’s first shifts in the NHL in the Minnesota zone. But despite a couple of decent looks, they weren’t able to get the killer chance they wanted. But as we know now, it’s only because Mason Marchment was just biding his time, mulling over how points he still needs to score in order to match the number of stitches in his cheek. I think he must be nearly there at this point.
On the Minnesota side, they almost got on the board first, when Matt Boldy got a nice pass and found himself alone off the left side of Jake Oettinger, but a quick switch and a backhand attempt sailed wide to keep things nil-nil. It was a portent of things to come, turns out.
Miro Heiskanen had a bit of a wild moment when he made a nice play entering the zone to clear the shooting lane, then put a puck just high that bounced back up, then eventually came right back into the crease, plopping in front of a surprised Filip Gustavsson. And while nobody is saying Heiskanen meant to do that, are you really going to say he didn’t with aboslute certainty? Makes you think.
About 12 minutes into the first period, Jacob Middleton and Brendan Smith dropped the gloves after a faceoff, and the two teams’ respective tough guys went to work. Middleton threw the majority of the punches, but neither really seemed to land anything too severe despite a prolonged scrap.
That was not the case when Matt Dumba got onto the ice minutes later, and after a hard collisio in the corner, he drew the collective ire of the Wild, and Zach Bogosian stepped up to settle things the Minnesota Nice way: by punching somebody. But Dumba got the better of the scrap this time, and the boos rained down from fans of his longtime home. I suppose that’s one way to try to cement your lineup spot.
Someone whose lineup spot is not in doubt is Mason Marchment, who shows no sign of slowing his torrid scoring pace. Marchment’s first goal would come late in the first period, when an Ilya Lyubushkin shot (after a Tyler Seguin faceoff win) glanced off Marchment’s leg at the perfect angle to beat Gustavsson. It was a fortunate bounce, but when your line is rolling like Andy Samberg in Hot Rod, luck always seems to jump over the boards when your line does.
Okay, maybe that’s more what it feels like for opposing lines, actually. But nevertheless! Also, this was just an excuse to watch this clip again, because it absolutely kills me every time.
After going up 1-0, things looked pretty ideal for Dallas after 20 minutes on the road. And the second period looked promising at first, as some good Logan Stankoven forechecking at the end of a long shift led to a golden scoring chance for Jason Robertson, but his shot hit Jared Spurgeon up high rather than going into the net, and Mthe Wild would get a power play of their own not too long after, when Brendan Smith got nailed for high-sticking. But the ensuing delayed penalty looked more dangerous than the power play would, as Dallas survived a group of Wild forwards that looked pretty gassed by the time the power play was winding down.
The Wild would get another chance on the job after Jamie Benn’s stick was called for getting between the skates, and this one looked a bit more dangerous. At least, it was dangerous for Minnesota, when a total pizza of a drop pass by Brock Faber was served up to Oskar Bäck, who nearly beat Gustavsson with the gift. But the goalie’s right pad was up to the task. From there, Minnesota seemed to be rattled, and the Wild’s only real chance on the remainder of the man-advantage came off a fluke bounce that went way up high and landed perfectly for a quick shot, but Oettinger’s positioning saw him through. That would be it for specials teams play in the game.
The Wild couldn’t get away from giving Dallas chances though, as Esa Lindell found Matt Duchene right after the penalty, sending the Stars’ leading scorer in all alone with a beautiful post route up the middle of the ice. But Gustavsson’s glove hand flashed out in time, and the puck deflected past the goal to keep Minnesota within one.
Öhgren looked confident in his first NHL game, for what it’s worth. He even got a great chance on Oettinger later in the second period, but Oettinger came out to deny him. Öhgren might end up looking for a pass in that situation in the future, as Benn was caught up ice and the Wild had numbers. But there’s something really great about seeing a confident shooter and confident goalie going at each other full-bore, and this time Oettinger won the duel.
Middleton would take another shot at Dallas 15 minutes into the middle frame, but this time he did so with the puck, ringing the far post past Oettinger’s glove hand. Luck seemed to be on Dallas’s side for much of the night in this one, which was a nice change of pace from Finland.
Evgenii Dadonov almost made his own luck as well, showing his typical opportunism to pick a puck around the crease, eventually getting a shot off from the opposite angle whence he started, but Gustavsson continued to seal the bottom of the ice to great effect. Low shots were primarily what the Stars had tested outside of Marchment’s shinpad volley, and indeed, Gustavsson would hold steady for a good long while.
Brock Faber continued to demonstrate the Stars’ good luck in this one, when he joined the rush for the Wild and got a perfect pass on the back door, only for his stick to snap almost on command. Sometimes it’s just not your night, or your teammates’ night, or maybe even your state’s night, you know?
In the third period, Marco Rossi got stricken with the same sort of hex as Faber, going from a great chance of his own to fanning on the puck, losing his stick, and limping back to the bench after some contact with Jason Robertson. So the game continued, and just for reference, the Stars had a 30-13 advantage in shots on goal with just over 15 minutes left to play. Marchment said after the game that Dallas probably could have had a couple more goals, but that’s been the story in games like their victories over Chicago as well, and in the end, it doesn’t even matter, so long as you win.
As the third period wore on, Logan Stankoven began to sense that the game was there for the taking. The puck found him multiple times, and he also found the puck in some unorthodox and fantastical ways, as you can see here:
But the Stars’ second goal would be scored by the inevitable Mason Marchment, who followed Sam Steel on a drive to the net and stuffed home a rebound. It was a great play from start to finish, as the Stars’ fourth line survived in their own end long enough for Lyubushkin to slide a gorgeous bank pass up to send Steel into the offensive zone to set everything up. Sometimes you don’t need luck to make a great play. Sometimes, you are Ilya Lyubushkin, and you simply cannot be kept off the score sheet.
From there, it felt like Dallas was ready to put the boots to the Wild. Duchene got another great scoring chance right after the goal—he could’ve had a pair of goals in this one, easily—and Minnesota looked rattled enough to give up even more chances in desperate search of a way back into the game in its final minutes. But they would find such a way when a Jared Spurgeon point shot finally got a bit of luck that must have been confused by the jersey colors, as Kaprizov’s outstretched stick (in a battle with Miro Heiskanen’s) got a bit of the puck and deflected it past Oettinger with just shy of six minutes left.
Brock Faber got a good look off the rush not long after that, but Oettinger’s stick managed to stop the puck, and he found the rebound before Faber could. But it signalled pretty clearly that the final four minutes was going to be anything but boring. A flurry was coming, and it was going to be furious.
Sure enough, Matt Boldy rang one off the post with a minute left to go—the luck never did abandon Dallas in this one—and Kaprizov shortly thereafter wired a one-timer that Oettinger gloved with aplomb. That felt like the chance for Minnesota, but Jake Oettinger simply does not wilt in his home state, and after warming up with his kid brother this morning at morning skate, he was clearly ready for the less-important shots Minnesota sent his way.
So with 25 seconds remiaining, the Wild called a timeout to rest and regroup for the face-off. They would win the draw, and Oettinger would be called upon once more, but Minnesota was unable to find the net. Jamie Benn would finally clear the puck as the horn sounded, solidifying a 2-1 win that felt as vindicating as either of the previous two contests, given the opponent. The Stars are now 8-0-3 in their last 11 games against Minnesota, and frankly, I think that means Brock Faber needs to choose a different number. These are the rules.
It’s not the Stars’ best game, which is easy enough to say after a pair of massive wins. But it did feel like the Stars proved something to themselves in this one, beating a truly good team (albeit one depleted by injuries) in its own rink, and holding on in a tight contest, bending but never breaking. And good gracious, if Marchment continues scoring like this, who’s gonna bet against them?
