{"id":555023,"date":"2026-04-18T05:20:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T05:20:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/555023\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T05:20:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T05:20:14","slug":"game-day-guide-stars-vs-wild-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/555023\/","title":{"rendered":"Game Day Guide: Stars vs Wild"},"content":{"rendered":"

First Shift \ud83c\udfd2<\/p>\n

As much as you can complain about the Stars and Minnesota Wild facing off in the first round as the second- and third-best teams in the West, it also means players and fans are in for a heck of a first-round matchup starting Saturday at American Airlines Center.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s exciting,\u201d said Dallas goalie Jake Oettinger<\/a>. \u201cIf you want to win it all, you\u2019ve got to beat great teams along the way. They\u2019re obviously one of the best teams in the league, and I think it\u2019s going to be a heck of a series.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dallas finished the regular season at 50-20-12 (112 points). Minnesota was 46-24-12. The Stars were second in GAA at 2.71. The Wild was fourth at 2.87. The Stars power play ranked second at 28.6 percent. The Wild was third at 25.2 percent.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Central was tough all year, so you kind of expect this,\u201d said Stars forward Robertson. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a great series.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robertson finished with 45 goals, same with teammate Wyatt Johnston<\/a>. Minnesota forward Kirill Kaprizov also had 45, while teammate Matt Boldy had 42. There are a lot of great elements to this best-of-seven showdown.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cThey\u2019ve got some of the best players in the league, some of the most skilled guys in the league,\u201d Oettinger said. \u201cThey\u2019re big and heavy at the same time, so they can play any game you want to play. It\u2019s going to take everyone, PK, power play, goaltending, everything is going to have to be great to beat these guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

Glen Gulutzan was named new coach of the Stars last summer, and he was familiar with the team because, as an assistant coach, he helped eliminate Dallas form the playoffs for two years in a row. As a result, Gulutzan implemented a catch phrase of \u201cone degree more,\u201d which asked players to be one degree more physical, one degree more intense, one degree more involved. It has paid off, and Dallas has been a more physical team. In key games against Edmonton, Colorado and Minnesota, the Stars jumped right into the physicality and never backed down.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why it needed to be in the fabric of our jersey while we were playing, so that you\u2019re not reactionary to these types of games,\u201d Gulutzan said. \u201cIt has to become a part of what you do so when you do get into these situations, you\u2019re not making mistakes trying to be overly physical. I think we\u2019ve done a good job of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Wild are expected to use a strategy that involves heavy physical play and a hard forecheck to force the Stars into mistakes. In its last meeting with Dallas, Minnesota scored three power play, but the Stars won the game 5-4 on the strength of depth scoring and key goals from Robertson and Mikko Rantanen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe learned some lessons last time we played them,\u201d Wild forward Marcus Foligno said. \u201cWe know that they\u2019re a really, really good team, and so are we. They have some lethal weapons. We\u2019re just more educated, more experienced going into this series than we were before. We always like our chances. We\u2019re positive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Which makes this a really great series. Whoever loses will be going home after one round, and neither wants that. So the expectations are every second will be a battle.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone is amped up and excited to get out there. Physicality ramps up, speed ramps up, it\u2019s just the nature of the game,\u201d Stars captain Benn said. \u201cThere\u2019s no waiting around. We\u2019re a confident group and going up against a great team, so it should be a good one.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"First Shift \ud83c\udfd2 As much as you can complain about the Stars and Minnesota Wild facing off in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":555024,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[463,464],"tags":[5,4,60,14,104,718],"class_list":{"0":"post-555023","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl-playoffs","8":"category-stanley-cup-playoffs","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-nhl-playoffs","12":"tag-stanley-cup","13":"tag-stanley-cup-playoffs","14":"tag-stanley-cup-playoffs-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116424029586940957","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=555023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555023\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/555024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=555023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=555023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=555023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}