\n\tIf the Minnesota Wild can turn themselves from perennial also-rans to a legitimate Stanley Cup contender, December 12, 2025, will be seen as the turning point.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tOf course it will.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tThat’s\u00a0when the Wild made the\u00a0Quinn Hughes<\/a>\u00a0trade<\/a>, bringing the transformative defenseman into the fold. But the reason the move happened in the first place was that\u00a0Jesper Wallstedt<\/a> saved the Wild’s bacon after a slow start.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \n\tMinnesota put Wallstedt in net for his fourth start of the year with a 5-7-3 record. Sixteen games and eight Wallstedt starts later, the Wild were 17-9-5, and Hughes was agreeing to get traded to St. Paul. If not for “The Great Wall of St. Paul” going on a 6-0-1 run with an astounding .958 save percentage in that stretch, Minnesota may never have made the playoffs.\n<\/p>\n \n\tWell, folks, he’s doing it again.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \n\tThe Wild head back to the Dallas Stars’ turf in a series that’s now tied 2-2, and it doesn’t happen without Wallstedt’s incredible performance in Game 4. Every chant of “WAL-LY!” in Grand Casino Arena was earned as Dallas tried chipping away St. Paul’s most famous structure. Wallstedt was perfect at 5-on-5, turning away 29 shots through regulation alone, faltering only against the best power play in the NHL (non-Connor McDavid<\/a> and Leon Draisaitl<\/a> Division).\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \n\tIn a series with Hughes, Kirill Kaprizov<\/a>, and Matt Boldy<\/a>, the Wild’s MVP so far is undoubtedly Wallstedt. Arguably, he’s dragging them kicking and screaming to being competitive in this series. The Wild let Wallstedt down<\/a> big-time in Game 3’s double-overtime loss, failing to convert on five power plays in the third period and overtime.\n<\/p>\n \n\tEven in Game 2<\/a>, the one game in which Jake Oettinger<\/a> can claim to have truly out-dueled Wallstedt, the loss had more to do with the players in front of him<\/a> than weak play from the rookie.\n<\/p>\n \n\tSaturday’s story could easily have been identical to Game 3. Ryan Hartman<\/a> ran Oettinger early in the first period, allowing Jason Robertson<\/a> to strike first for Dallas on the ensuing power play. The second period saw four of the Wild’s top players (Hughes, Boldy, Brock Faber<\/a>, and Joel Eriksson Ek<\/a>) get trapped in their own zone for a 3-minute, 13-second shift in which the Stars fired five shots. Wallstedt would have to turn away a dozen more before finally cracking on a power play in the last minute of the middle period.\n<\/p>\n \n\tMarcus Foligno<\/a>‘s goal with 5:20 remaining in regulation eventually punched the Wild’s ticket to sudden-death overtime, but not before a turnover by Marcus Johansson<\/a> put the game on the stick of star defenseman Miro Heiskanen<\/a> with six seconds left. Wallstedt had to seal the deal with a nifty glove save.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \n\tIf the Wild are going to get a different result than their previous eight trips to the postseason (and that’s still very much in question), the X-Factor looks like it’ll be Wallstedt. Arguably, this is the first time Minnesota has had a goalie who looks capable of carrying their team through a series.\n<\/p>\n \n\tThe last time the Wild advanced past the first round was\u00a0with Devan Dubnyk<\/a>\u00a0in 2015. Dubnyk shut the door on the St. Louis Blues in Games 5 and 6, but with ample goal support and a strong defense in front of him, it doesn’t feel like he stole the series.\n<\/p>\n \n\tThe year before that, the Wild cycled through Ilya Bryzgalov<\/a>, then a young Darcy Kuemper<\/a>, then Bryzgalov again to upset the Colorado Avalanche. While Kuemper shut out the Avs in a 1-0 overtime win in Game 3, then followed up with a 2-1 win in Game 4, the Wild held Colorado to just 33 shots in those games. It was a team win.\n<\/p>\n \n\tAs much as increasingly geriatric Wild fans (like myself, to be clear) treasure the 2003 goalie rotation of Manny Fernandez<\/a> and Dwayne Roloson<\/a>, even they had to basically trade off hot streaks to get to the Conference Final. Roloson shone brightly in Game 1, then put Minnesota in a 3-1 hole against the Avs in Round 1 before Fernandez saved the day. Fernandez then looked mediocre in dropping Games 1 and 2 against the Vancouver Canucks in Round 2 before Roloson returned the favor.\n<\/p>\n \n\tThis was looking like a team similar to 2003, one that would need to rely on both of its goaltenders in the playoffs. Maybe that moment comes in Games 5 through 7, but as of now, there hasn’t been a moment where the Wild have seemed even to entertain switching out Wallstedt. “The Wall” looks like a bona-fide No. 1 goalie, his teammates talk about him like he’s a No. 1 goalie, and his .929 save percentage against one of the most lethal offensive teams gives him the stats of a No. 1 goalie.\n<\/p>\n \n\tNo one knows how this story will end. Goaltending can be volatile, and the Stanley Cup Playoffs almost always are. But we do know what’s in the books right now, and we know that were it not for Wallstedt rising to the occasion this postseason, the Wild would be one game away from elimination. Instead, they’ve got a best-of-three where it looks like Minnesota has the edge in net. For all that’s been frustrating in the series, Wallstedt’s play has the Wild on the verge of the unthinkable: playing games in May.\n<\/p>\n