DALLAS \u2014 The Minnesota Wild were at their team hotel on Thursday night after a team dinner when coach John Hynes and goalie coach Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Chabot met with each of their goalies individually and gave rookie Jesper Wallstedt the best news of his career.<\/p>\n
He\u2019d be getting to make his first career playoff start in Game 1 against the Dallas Stars.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was a little surprised,\u201d Wallstedt said. \u201cI was hoping to play. I wanted to play. I was very excited as soon as I got the news.\u201d<\/p>\n
You\u2019d think the 23-year-old Swede would be on cloud nine, ready to tell his family back home.<\/p>\n
Not so much. They found out the same way the hockey world did on Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, he doesn\u2019t tell me secrets,\u201d said his father, Jonas, from his V\u00e4ster\u00e5s, Sweden home Saturday night. \u201cI saw it on social media and texted him, \u2018Congrats.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Truth is, Wallstedt was just locked in. He lives for big games and big moments. Case in point: his numbers against top teams this season. And he was coming in hot, having allowed two or fewer goals in eight of his last nine starts of the regular season. That\u2019s why Wallstedt got the nod. \u201cHe earned it,\u201d Hynes said.<\/p>\n
And Wallstedt certainly rewarded the Wild\u2019s faith, with a poised 27-save performance in a 6-1 win. He\u2019s got the net now and is not ready to give it up.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a characteristic you can\u2019t teach,\u201d said Richard Bachman, Wallstedt\u2019s goalie coach in AHL Iowa. \u201cYou\u2019re pretty much born with it as a competitor. He\u2019s a quiet and fun-loving guy and a great teammate, but when you get on the ice, the switch is flipped \u2014 you see the competitiveness.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe wants to make the save. He wants to make a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wallstedt wasn\u2019t tested a ton in the first two periods, facing just 16 shots. But he made some timely saves, including stopping Miro Heiskanen and Mikko Rantanen off the rush in the first period, when it was still a 0-0 game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was definitely nervous,\u201d Wallstedt said. \u201cIt just shows that it means something to you. I like a little bit of nerves. I think it\u2019s something good. There\u2019s definitely some nerves throughout the day and then a little bit extra when we were rolling in for the game here, but as soon as the national anthem is over, the first couple of pucks starts coming, you start to get used to it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wallstedt said when he\u2019s playing his best, he only sees up to the top of the boards, not focusing on anything else. So it looks like the same ice and the same boards at every rink in every game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just keep telling myself, this is the same game I played since I was 6,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing different to it.\u201d<\/p>\n
And Wallstedt showed he was feeling that way on some game-shifting saves later in the second. The Stars had scored to pull within 4-1. The building started to come alive, and Dallas was pressing. Wallstedt made a pad stop on a Jamie Benn point-blank shot off a Kirill Kaprizov turnover. Then, a couple of minutes later, Wallstedt played a two-on-one perfectly, getting his glove on a Wyatt Johnston shot.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought I challenged him pretty well,\u201d Wallstedt said. \u201cAnd then obviously, there\u2019s two players coming in. I know in my read that he was looking to shoot, and I was just trying to take as much space away as possible, and I liked my poise and try to just wait him out to make sure he made the first move. And, yeah, he shot it on my glove there, and then went down in the corner.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a very confident kid,\u201d Hynes said. \u201cHe\u2019s a very confident goaltender, and I think the way that he\u2019s playing and the way that he was playing coming into tonight, he\u2019s made those types of saves, and I think it was a big moment. There\u2019s going to be times throughout this series where you\u2019re going to need \u2014 there\u2019s going to be a breakdown, there\u2019s going to be a mistake or there\u2019s going to be a great play made by a great player on their team \u2014 where you\u2019re going to need a big time save at a key time, and we got that tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n