Matt Boldy had two goals and an assist for the visiting Minnesota Wild in a 6-1 win against the Dallas Stars in Game 1 of their Western Conference first-round series on Saturday.

Kirill Kaprizov had a goal and two assists, Joel Eriksson Ek scored twice, Ryan Hartman had a goal and an assist, and Mats Zuccarello had three assists for the Wild, who are trying to win their first playoff series since 2015 after getting eliminated in the opening round eight times since then.

Game 2 is Monday in Dallas.

Jesper Wallstedt got the start over Filip Gustavsson and the rookie made 27 saves for Minnesota.

“He’s a confident kid,” Wild coach John Hynes said of Wallstedt. “He’s made those saves lately at key times.”

Jason Robertson scored and Jake Oettinger made 23 saves for Dallas, which lost Game 1 of its first-round series 5-1 against the Colorado Avalanche last season before rebounding and eventually reaching the Western Conference finals.

Minnesota was on the first power play of the game when Zuccarello passed the puck from above the left faceoff circle to Boldy just below the goal line. He made a touch pass to Eriksson Ek cutting into the slot area and Ek scored with a one-timer from the left hash marks for a 1-0 lead at 5:35 of the first period.

“He’s a tenacious competitor,” Hynes said of Eriksson Ek. “He’s a hard guy to play against. He was rested and brought a lot to the game tonight.”

Minnesota scored 56 seconds into the second period to extend the lead to 2-0.

Kaprizov received a pass along the wall in the Dallas zone after he was left alone coming down the right side. He had room to skate just below the right faceoff dot before scoring shortside with a wrist shot for his 16th career playoff goal, tying Zach Parise for the most in franchise history.

“You can’t get to your game if you keep losing puck battles,” Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said. “When you’re not winning races, and 50-50 battles, you leave yourself vulnerable.”

Brock Faber shot a bouncing puck from just above the left circle that Hartman redirected into the net from in front of the crease to make it 3-0 at 3:28.

Boldy made it 4-0 at 6:30 when he tapped in a loose puck from the side of the net.

“They certainly, to a man, were better than us,” Gulutzan said.

Robertson backhanded the puck into the net from in close while on a power play to cut it to 4-1 at 15:10 of the second period.

Eriksson Ek tacked on a power-play goal at 8:13 of the third period to make it 5-1, and Boldy scored into an empty net with 3:08 left for a 6-1 lead.

–Field Level Media