Dallas Stars’ comeback night
Dallas rallied for a comeback victory that has fans buzzing about the series impact, but the win came with a caveat: concerns surfaced over defenseman Miro Heiskanen’s injury status, which could alter matchups if it lingers. That combination—momentum plus a key injury worry—makes the victory meaningful but fragile for the Stars’ playoff hopes. (x.com).
Dallas looked cooked on Thursday night, then scored three times and beat the Minnesota Wild 5-4 anyway, with Jason Robertson putting them ahead at 10:35 of the third period after a no-look pass from Esa Lindell. Minnesota had already built its offense on three power-play goals, so Dallas had to win this one at even strength and then survive a late penalty kill. (nhl.com) That comeback landed harder because these teams are about to see each other again in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The same NHL recap said Dallas pushed its lead over Minnesota to four points in the Central Division, and General Manager Jim Nill said on April 10 that Dallas and Minnesota will meet in Round 1, with home ice still being sorted out. (nhl.com 1) (nhl.com 2) The swing inside the game was simple: Minnesota kept cashing in on special teams, and Dallas kept finding answers five-on-five until the Wild finally ran out of clean reads. Wyatt Johnston, Mikko Rantanen, and Colin Blackwell each had a goal and an assist, and Jake Oettinger stopped 27 shots behind them. (nhl.com) Then came the part that changed the mood in the building. Miro Heiskanen, Dallas’s top defenseman, left in the first period with a lower-body injury and was later scheduled for a magnetic resonance imaging scan on Friday, according to Nill. (nhl.com) Heiskanen is not a replace-one-guy-with-another kind of player. He entered Friday with 63 points, made up of nine goals and 54 assists, and he was averaging 25 minutes and 28 seconds of ice time in 77 games, which is the workload of a defenseman who starts the engine and keeps it running. (nhl.com) That is why Dallas’s win felt sturdy and fragile at the same time. The Stars showed they could erase a 4-2 hole against the exact team they are about to face, but the same night may have taken away the skater they use most against top lines, top power plays, and the hardest minutes on the clock. (nhl.com 1) (nhl.com 2) Dallas is already juggling more than one question mark. Nill also said forward Roope Hintz, who has 44 points in 53 games, is doubtful to play before the playoffs begin on April 18, and his status for Game 1 was “still not definite.” (nhl.com) So the takeaway from Thursday was not just that Dallas won. It was that the Stars may have found a blueprint for this series — weather the Wild power play, trust Robertson and Johnston to finish chances, and lean on Oettinger late — while also learning how thin that blueprint gets if Heiskanen is not there to hold the blue line together. (nhl.com 1) (nhl.com 2)
