Game 3 Preview: Minnesota Wild and Dallas Stars Have Everything To Play For
After 2 of possibly 7 games in the first round of the 2026 NHL Playoffs, the Minnesota Wild and the Dallas Stars are tied at 1 in the series. Both are looking solid going into the next few games.
Interestingly enough, the teams had a 2-2 record in the regular season, with Dallas winning on Oct. 14 and April 9, and Minnesota taking the win on Dec. 11 and March 21.
Wild Take Game 1, Stars Take Game 2
It was a blowout in Game 1, with Minnesota winning 6-1 and dominating all levels of play. The game kicked things off on April 18. April 20 was a much more balanced effort from both teams, and Dallas took the win, 4-2. Both offenses were active, with the Stars having 31 shots on goal and the Wild 30.
Wyatt Johnston of Dallas scored twice, showing why he was one of the highest-scoring players on the team and league in the regular season. Teammates Jason Robertson and Matt Duchene also scored. For the Wild, Brock Faber shone, scoring the first two playoff goals of his career.
Play was back-and-forth in the first period, with Johnston and then Faber scoring within a few minutes of each other. Duchene scored on a power play in the second period, and Robertson moved the Stars up to 3-1 early on in the third period. Faber scored for a fantastic game, but with the Wild going 0-for-4 on power plays and Johnston scoring a power-play goal on an empty net with less than a minute to go, they couldn’t keep it up in the end.
Both teams’ goalies had save percentages of over 0.9, with the Stars’ Jake Oettinger recording 0.933 and the Wild’s rookie, Jesper Wallestedt. Forward Mats Zuccarello of the Wild did not play in Game 2 after getting an elbow to the head in Game 1, so hopefully he returns, because he had two assists in that game.
Areas Of Improvement
The Stars simply didn’t perform like a top playoff team in Game 1, but they did come back to life in the third period and continued that into Game 2. Meanwhile, the Wild have been strong through both games. They will need to better capitalize on power plays, which they managed to do in Game 1.
Dallas is the higher seed, but both teams have been great in 5-on-5 play and in goal. Minnesota did a great job of killing penalties, and both teams put together composed games.
Wild Head Coach John Hynes spoke after Game 2. “I thought it was a hard-fought game by both teams. They were going to play hard. I thought we played hard as well. So, I thought from a competitive aspect, there wasn’t much difference. With Kirill (Kaprizov) and those guys, I thought there were some good pushes in the third.
“Some of (their penalty kill success) I think was some of our execution, to be honest with you. Other than that, I think that they were a little bit more aggressive. I thought they were able to break up some plays with some sticks, and they pressured a little bit. They won some more puck battles. When we were in the corners trying to recover pucks, they were a little bit better in that area than we were tonight.”
Roberston spoke about the rest of the series after the game. “Going on the road now in a tough building and a tough environment. We’re gonna have to have even higher desperation there. We’ll be all playing for each other there. It’s gonna be hostile, but it was a good performance tonight in terms of the battles and the races. It’s gonna be a long series.”
Stars vs. Wild Game 3
There is still everything to play for on April 22 when the Stars travel to the Wild, who will want to rebound and win on home ice.
