While the Minnesota Wild weren’t able to make franchise history and earn a 2-0 series lead for the first time, they head back to St. Paul with something else.

Despite a 4-2 loss on Monday night, the Wild have some serious momentum heading into what amounts to a home-ice advantage flip against Dallas. The Stars will still host Game 7 if things get that far, but the Wild host the next two games at Grand Casino Arena and have a chance to close out early.

If the Wild can win the next two games, they’d have a chance to win the series either in Dallas in Game 5 or back home in Game 6. Of course, that’s a lot easier said than done, especially after what we saw happen in Game 2 and how sloppy things got.

Minnesota Wild vs. Dallas Stars Game 3 start time, TV Channel, and more

Here’s everything to know for tonight’s big game in St. Paul:

Date: Wednesday, April 22ndStart Time: 8:30 pm CTTV Channel: TNT Announcers: John Forslund, Eddie Olczyk, Shane HnidyRadio: KFAN 100.3 FMLive Stream: ESPN+ | Fubo

Minnesota dominated Game 1, scoring on Jake Oettinger six times while looking lethal on the power play. That flipped in the second game, as the Wild allowed emotions to get to them and were dragged down to Dallas’ level.

Marcus and Nick Foligno were all over the place, causing the wrong kind of ruckus while getting sucked into dirty plays by the Stars. That reduced what was an otherwise perfect Wild attack in the first game and weakened it with cheapness.

The Wild simply can’t allow that to happen again. If it does, then the scales will tip toward Dallas in what has been a pretty even series on paper up to this point. Foligno isn’t wrong in saying the Stars can’t really hang with the Wild in 5-on-5, but we consistently saw them allow Dallas a man advantage by losing sight of what worked in Game 1.

We all knew this series wouldn’t be over quickly, but the Wild really figured things out in a big way in the first game. Getting Mats Zuccarello back will be huge, but so too will keeping their heads on straight in a series that is still very much winnable.

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