Frederick Gaudreau roofed a backhand shot in the third round of the shootout to give the visiting Minnesota Wild a 6-5 victory over the Dallas Stars on Sunday afternoon.
Dallas came back from a 5-1 deficit with four goals in the third period to force overtime and the shootout. Gaudreau scored after Roope Hintz, who had a hat trick and an assist, backhanded a shot past Marc-Andre Fleury but through the crease and wide of net to start the third round, the only miss of the shootout.
Kirill Kaprizov scored a first-period power-play goal to tie franchise records for point streak (12 games) and consecutive games with a goal (six). Connor Dewar scored a short-handed goal for Minnesota, which won its fourth straight game.
Jake Middleton, Jordan Greenway and Joel Eriksson Ek also scored and Jared Spurgeon and Ryan Reaves had two assists apiece for the Wild, who closed to within five points of the first-place Stars in the Central Division.
Fleury made 30 saves and improved to 7-0-1 in his last eight starts against Dallas.
Jason Robertson extended his career-high point streak to 18 games with his league-leading 23rd goal of the season and one assist for Dallas, which had a two-game win streak snapped. Mason Marchment also had a goal and an assist and Joe Pavelski added three assists for the Stars.
Jake Oettinger made 12 saves on 16 shots before being pulled after the second period for Scott Wedgewood, who stopped 14 shots but none of Minnesota’s three attempts in the shootout.
Minnesota established a 5-1 lead 29 seconds into the third period when Eriksson Ek deflected Spurgeon’s point shot past Wedgewood for his ninth goal of the season. But Dallas responded with three goals in a span of 2:43 by Hintz, Robertson and Marchment to cut it to 5-4.
The Stars pulled Wedgewood for an extra attacker with 2:18 left and Hintz scored just seven seconds later off a Pavelski pass to tie it 5-5.
Minnesota took a 1-0 lead in the first period when Kaprizov snapped a wrist shot from the bottom of the left circle past Oettinger’s blocker side for his 16th goal of the season.
Dallas tied it at the 6:58 mark of the second period when Hintz buried a rebound of Robertson’s shot from the low slot for his ninth goal of the season.
Minnesota built a 4-1 lead with three goals in the span of 2:50. Dewar got the first when he picked up a loose puck in the neutral zone, raced past defenseman Ryan Suter on a breakaway and roofed a wrist shot for his third goal of the season.
Middleton and Greenway then scored 15 seconds apart. Middleton slapped a shot past Oettinger’s glove side for his second goal of the season, and Greenway spun around and put in a rebound from the slot for his first goal of the season.
–Field Level Media
