broke down<\/a> on X \u2014 and also led the breakout that triggered Kirill Kaprizov\u2019s eventual game-winner. He also logged 4 minutes, 43 seconds shorthanded, while suppressing scoring chances against.<\/p>\nAccording to MoneyPuck, in 13:32 of five-on-five ice time, the Hughes-Faber pair was on the ice for three goals for and zero against, 19 shot attempts for and 11 against and had a 57.7 percent expected goals rate.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe and Hughes were a machine on the breakout,\u201d said ESPN color analyst Erik Johnson, who was between the benches and interviewed Faber during the first period. \u201cFaber\u2019s ability to check with his legs is so impressive. He didn\u2019t allow Dallas to get their rush going at all. He was on top of those guys all night. He had his fingerprints all over that game. He only had an assist but may have been their best player.\u201d<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s saying something considering Kaprizov scored a goal and two assists, Matt Boldy scored two goals and an assist and Joel Eriksson Ek scored two power-play goals.<\/p>\n
In 2023, Faber played the final two regular-season games after losing in the NCAA championship game in Tampa, Fla. The then-University of Minnesota captain was not supposed to play any playoff games, but he was so impressive in those final two games that he played all six playoff games against Dallas instead of veteran Alex Goligoski. He wasn\u2019t on the ice for a single goal against.<\/p>\n
Still, Faber played sheltered, limited minutes on the third pair. Not anymore.<\/p>\n
Not when you\u2019ve developed into one of the top two-way, top-pair defensemen in the league. Not when you play with Hughes.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s also why he felt so much more at ease Saturday than he did in Game 1 three postseasons ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we all just played the game the right way,\u201d Faber said. \u201cWe played simple when we needed to play simple, and we pushed when we needed to push. And obviously, there\u2019s a comfort level when you have a few (playoff games) under your belt and you obviously have a few bad ones under your belt. You kind of get used to the noise and the lights and the nerves.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo just a lot more excitement (Saturday). It was hard to play a bad game when we all played with the mindset that we did.\u201d<\/p>\n
Faber played to his identity, Hynes said, defending hard, being physical, playing fast and moving the puck efficiently.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been playing with Brock for 45 games, maybe a little more now, and like I\u2019ve been saying, the more we play together, the more we\u2019re going to grow together and he can pick my brain,\u201d Hughes said. \u201cLike he knows where I want the puck, and I know where he wants the puck. Just kind of be able to read off each other without having to say anything. He\u2019s obviously a really gifted player \u2014 can skate, really skate, competitive, defends, can chip in offensively \u2014 and is a great guy.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, it\u2019s a massive piece for us, and as we go forward, we\u2019re just going to have to continue to elevate, but I thought he was excellent tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hughes logged 24 \u00bd minutes \u2014 more than three minutes below his league-leading average ice time during the regular season. Part of the reason was that the Wild didn\u2019t need to push him, considering they played with such a large lead. Part of it was that he was coming off an illness that kept him off the ice for seven days.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, he had a tough week there, and he stepped right back and could have played 30 minutes and not even been fazed by it, and that\u2019s what makes him so special,\u201d Faber said.<\/p>\n
Ditto for Faber, though, who was a 30-minute-a-night machine during his Calder Trophy runner-up season. But he\u2019s a better, more mature and more physically developed now, especially compared to the one who debuted in that 2023 series against the Stars.<\/p>\n
For one, he\u2019s a mainstay now and feels much more part of it, compared to then.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, coming from college, you don\u2019t go through the whole ups and downs that all the guys went through to get to the playoffs,\u201d Faber said last week. \u201cIt\u2019s definitely a feeling of more, like, pride, to want to win and want to be at your best and get past Dallas. So definitely a lot more goes into it when you go through the whole year of working toward one goal, and that\u2019s to make the playoffs. Definitely, you realize how much work that comes from doing this.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Wild have never led a series 2-0 in their 25-year history. Faber wants that to end, heading back to Minnesota for Game 3.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe took it to them (Saturday) night, but that\u2019s in the past now,\u201d Faber said. \u201cThey\u2019re going to have a response, and we need to continue to get better in all aspects.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DALLAS \u2014 One of the biggest advantages the Minnesota Wild had on Saturday against the Dallas Stars was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556700,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5118],"tags":[147,5,161,38,5280,4,162],"class_list":{"0":"post-556699","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-wild","8":"tag-dallas-stars","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-minnesota","11":"tag-minnesota-wild","12":"tag-minnesotawild","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-wild"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116437345042994095","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556699","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=556699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}