Minnesota Wild Advance To Round 2 For First Time Since 2015
Quinn Hughes came through in a big way, scoring twice in Game 6 to help the Minnesota Wild beat the Dallas Stars 5-2 and clinch the series 4-2. Hughes was playing well before, but hadn’t scored.
This is the first time since the 2015 Stanley Cup Playoffs that the Wild have advanced past the first round. In 2015, they defeated the St. Louis Blues in 6 games before being swept by the Chicago Blackhawks in 4 games.
Minnesota Takes Game 6 In Strong Fashion
The Wild led 3-2 going into Game 6 on April 30, already a bit of an upset. The Stars were the 3rd seed for the playoffs, while the Wild were the 7th. Still, injuries to key players and struggles to score well 5-on-5 held the Stars back from the series win.
Minnesota got the first goal of the night when Hughes scored in the first period, his first goal of the 2026 Playoffs. The Wild played clean through all 6 games to try and avoid giving the Stars a power play, but in the second period, Dallas did get a power play, and Wyatt Johnston was able to score, tying the game at 1.
The Stars got a 2-1 lead a few minutes later when Mavrik Borque found the net. Hughes got an assist on the game-tying goal from Vladimir Tarasenko, less than a minute after Borque’s goal.
After that, Minnesota dominated play and got three straight goals, starting with Hughes’ go-ahead at 10:38 in the third period. After that, Matt Boldy scored two empty-net goals, and the series went to the Wild. Hughes became the first defenseman in Wild history to score a series-clinching goal.
Post-Game 6 Reactions
Hughes said that it was important to Minnesota to clinch the series in Game 6, especially as they were playing in front of an enthusiastic home crowd. “Obviously, we had a great opportunity to close them out in Game 6,” he said. “If it went the other way, you’d still have a chance in Game 7, but I just think their backs are against the wall and you want to close it out. I think all of our guys had that mindset, and that’s all I was thinking.”
Wild HC John Hynes was thrilled with Game 6 and the series as a whole. “I’m really proud of the group,” Hynes said. “I mean, they’re such a pleasure to coach. The way they went through the series, I think just learning lessons and trying to get better and stronger. Tonight was another example of that. We came out on our toes, ready to play, had great commitment the last two games with the shot blocking … and we had contributions throughout the lineup. It was fun to coach.”
The Stars were disappointed with the loss, which marks the first time in five years that they haven’t made conference finals. We played hard, but it felt like every time we made a mistake, it ended up in our net, and I think it wasn’t for a lack of trying to score; it’s just that we didn’t get the bounces that we needed,” Matt Duchene of Dallas, a forward, said.
“That’s a heck of a team, and they played really well. I thought tonight was a pretty even game. I mean, they had the first period, we had the second, the third was a toss-up, and they just got the last bounce off a skate … it kind of summed up the series.”
What’s Next For Minnesota
The Minnesota Wild have a tough matchup ahead of them now, as they will face the No. 1 overall seed, the Colorado Avalanche, in Round 2 of the Western Conference. The Avalanche swept the Los Angeles Kings with relative ease and has had a few days to rest up and get ready to face Minnesota. The schedule for Round 2 of the Western Conference has yet to be posted.
