Twelve hours later, in the light of day, Minnesota Wild coach John Hynes was able to offer a slightly new perspective on what had failed in his team’s 4-3 double overtime loss to Dallas, which ended at nearly 1 a.m. on Thursday morning.
Most notably, special teams.
Minnesota wing Matt Boldy and Dallas; Jason Robertson compete for the puck in overtime of Game 3 of a Western Conference quarterfinal series at Grand Casino Arena on April 22, 2026. The Stars won, 4-3, in double overtime. (Photo by David Berding/Getty Images)
In a debrief with reporters around 1 p.m. Thursday, Hynes made it clear that it was a complete day off for the team and a chance to rest and reset following a Game 3 that was both physically and emotionally taxing.
But Hynes and the coaches had been hard at work, trying to figure out the reasons that Dallas had scored the opening goal less than two minutes into the game, the tying goal in the third period and the winning goal in the fifth period — all on power plays — while the Wild were 1 for 7 with the man advantage.
Through three full games and an extra period plus, the Stars are 7 for 17 on the power play, while the Wild are 3 for 15. Minnesota scored twice with the man advantage in their series-opening 6-1 blowout, and has gone 1 for 11 since then.
The easy explanation for the drought is the loss of top-line forward Mats Zuccarello, who had three assists in the opener and has not played since because of an upper body injury. After looking at video, Hynes acknowledged that Zuccarello’s absence hurts, but that the Wild’s power play issues aren’t that simple.
“It’s not taking the things that are available,” Hynes said. “Listen, they’re good. They’re a good penalty kill, but there are certain things that they do that you have to try to expose. And you’ve gotta do it. And if it doesn’t work, you’ve got to do it again. And if it doesn’t work, you’ve got to do it again. … Right now, there’s gotta be more detail to it.”
The coaching staff spent a good part of Wednesday night and the wee hours of Thursday morning trying to find the right five players for the first power play unit. In a “fully healthy” world, the quintet is Kirill Kaprizov, Matt Boldy, Mats Zuccarello and Joel Eriksson Ek with Quinn Hughes on the blue line. With Zuccarello out, Hynes tried both Bobby Brink and Vladimir Tarasenko with the top unit; neither of them clicked.
The Wild’s lone man-advantage goal in Games 2 and 3 came from the second unit, with Marcus Johansson getting his first of the playoffs. In the immediate aftermath of Game 3, the reaction from players was that they were close to clicking, and that no dramatic changes were needed.
Notably, the Stars are making Wild goaltender Jesper Wallstedt work harder on the kill than the Wild are challenging Dallas’ Jake Oettinger. Through three games, the Stars have 32 man-advantage shots on goal; the Wild have 19.
With eight power play chances on Wednesday, half of the Stars’ 36 shots on goal were with a man advantage.
“You never know when you’re going to get hot on the power play. Might be next game. It could be the game after that,” said Hughes, whose nearly 44 minutes of ice time were a career high and franchise record. “Whether we were 4 for 4 on the power play tonight or 0 for whatever we were, that doesn’t change how we have to approach the next game. You know, we’re going to need it again. Obviously, we had our looks to be the difference and it just didn’t go.”
While Hughes offered optimism that a breakthrough is near, Boldy pushed back on the idea that there was frustration brewing over the special teams struggles.
“We’re still confident in our group. That was a heck of a hockey game. Back and forth, a lot of chances, goals, saves, everything,” he said. “It’s a long series. We were up 2-1 last year, too (and lost). This whole narrative that we’re frustrated and all this, that’s not true. We’re still confident in our group. Let’s nip that in the bud now because it’s made up.”
While they took a much-needed day away from the rink, Hynes said both Zuccarello and Yakov Trenin — also out with a suspected concussion — tried to go in Game 3 and could not. With an extra day off before Game 4, there was at least some hope for a reunion of the top power play unit by Saturday afternoon.
“We’ll see,” Hynes said. “Hope these couple days help and we’ll see where we’re at Saturday.”