DALLAS, Tex. --The rubber is about to hit the road in this entertaining, often emotional series between the Minnesota Wild and the Dallas Stars.
With the squads tied at two games apiece, a best-of-three is about to start Tuesday night at American Airlines Center in Big D. Game 5 is Friday night back at Xcel Energy Center and (obviously) it will be the first elimination game of the series.
Here are Five Things for Game 5.

#

Goalie Games

For two games in a row the Wild has done an outstanding job of limiting the high octane Dallas offense in terms of their high-danger scoring chances, especially at even strength. Filip Gustavsson agreed that even though the Wild lost Game 4 by a 3-2 count his workload was not onerous. He was beaten on a screen shot by Evgenii Dadonov moments after Dadonov left the penalty box and by two power play goals by Tyler Seguin, one of which caromed off his skate. Hardly the Wild netminder's fault. But there is no question 'the' story of Game 4 as far as the actual play was Dallas netminder Jake Oettinger who stopped 32 of 34 shots including clear cut breakaways by Kirill Kaprizov and Marcus Foligno who actually had a good chance on the rebound of his breakaway chance. Oettinger also saved the game with about six seconds to go as he blocked Marcus Johansson's rocket one-timer from the side of the net. Gustavsson, so good in a prolonged double-overtime Game 1 after giving up two power play goals on the road, will need to replicate that effort in Game 5.

Pucks To The Net

So, how do you make Oettinger look mortal as he did in Game 3's 5-1 win? Two things: pucks to the net and traffic in front. This isn't earth shattering news. Every NHL coach wants that for his team. But the Wild are built to create that kind of traffic and it didn't happen enough in Game 4. That's especially true on the power play where the Wild was 1-for-4 in Game 4 and scored its lone goal with an extra attacker on the ice. In Game 3, won by Minnesota 5-1, the Wild scored a power play goal on a Marcus Foligno deflection. Game 4 did not provide that kind of net-front presence.
"Just get some pucks through. They're doing a real good job of blocking, getting in lanes," Head Coach Dean Evason said. "We've got to find a way to get some more pucks to the net with some purpose. We were trying -- the same as kind of our first six minutes - some cute stuff and some sauce passes and what have you. We've got to play a little bit more straightforward."

Lineup Calls

Difficult to imagine, barring some sort of unforeseen injury, that either team will be making any lineup adjustments for Game 5. Sam Steel, in for Joel Eriksson Ek, was fine although it's imperative that his unit which features Johansson and Matt Boldy, find their way onto the scoresheet unless Evason decides to tinker with his center group. Eriksson Ek hasn't skated since his setback in Game 3 and there's no timeline for when he might get back on the ice.
The Stars got good news on Monday when Joe Pavelski, injured in Game 1, skated with extra players in Dallas and then skated with the main group Tuesday morning. Head Coach Pete DeBoer confirmed he is not an option for Game 5.
One key part of the Minnesota lineup who will be playing with some emotional edge is defenseman John Klingberg who will be playing in his first playoff game in American Airlines Center where he toiled for eight seasons as a key member of the Stars lineup before signing with Anaheim as a free agent last summer. He was then dealt to Minnesota at the trade deadline and has been a force on the back end in his two playoff games recording four points and playing a strong defensive game.
"It's going to be a lot of fun. Obviously a lot of history but I'm not going to try and think too much about that," Klingberg said earlier about returning to Dallas for the first time in the post-season. He was injured for Games 1 and 2 of this series. "We're already playing them here in Xcel too so we'll see what happens but it's nothing special that's going to bother me or anything, it's going to be a lot of fun," Klingberg said.

Official Fallout

Discussion about how Game 4 was called dominated the lead-up to Game 5. Ryan Hartman got booted late in the game for voicing his displeasure, which, given the fact Minnesota pulled to within a goal on a late power play, turned out to be a pretty big piece of the lineup unavailable. Marcus Foligno, at the center of two controversial calls, was unequivocal on his assessment of the officiating. Evason provided a passionate defense of how his team plays epitomizes playoff hockey. Or it should. But what happens next? Does the Wild become overly cautious in its approach to physicality because it can't afford to get on the wrong side of the special teams battle? To do so would be calamitous to the team's chances of success and Evason knows that. But they also must be aware of how critical the special teams line is to the outcome. The Stars have feasted on the Wild penalty killing group scoring seven times on 16 opportunities. They rank first among playoff teams in power play goals scored. Evason insisted the Wild's plan won't vary in spite of what transpired in the last game.
"Are we going to change the way that we play? Are we going to finish all our checks? Of course we are," Evason added. "And if you get a suspect call then yeah you've got to kill the thing off. We think we're playing the game the right way, we might have some stuff go in their favor but I'm sure they feel the same thing. There's some calls that have gone in our favor."
In each series there is a supervisor assigned by the league. In this series it's long-time referee Don Van Massenhoven. The coaches and/or management from each team meets with the supervisor daily during a series to discuss issues that have come up.
"There's no lobbying that goes on but obviously we're talking about our concerns of last game," Evason said. "Don't have to go into all of it, you guys have spoke about it enough. Like I talked about after the game, no sense whining about penalties, there's nothing we can do about them now."

So-And-So Needs To Step Up

I've covered lots of playoff series. I've written lots of 'this (usually star) player needs to step up if his team is going to win,' stories. And I've read lots more. It's a natural part of the environment of a playoff series. The same teams going hammer and tongs every other night for two weeks puts the microscope on high, especially on the most skilled players. And so we have come to the point in this series that the light is shining brightest, at least when it comes to the Wild's offensive production, on Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy. The two bright young Wild stars have combined for one goal and that was scored by Kaprizov on a deflection in Game 1. Seems like a long time ago because in playoff years it was a long time ago. Boldy has three assists. Looking for signs that a player is about to break through is an exercise in reading tea leaves but Kaprizov looked as good as he has in this series in Game 4 with 11 shot attempts. Boldy had no shots on goal in Game 4 but his 17 shots on goal in the series leads the team. The coaching staff do 'touch-ups' with individual players depending on the situation, talking to them about specific parts of the game and showing some video.
"There's a fine line talking too much and showing too much and what-have-you," Evason said Tuesday morning. "There's different situations depending on who the player is. But the bottom line is we are getting the chances so that's the very positive thing. Not only for those two but our entire group we just need to finish them off."
Specifically on Kaprizov, Evason was pleased with his effort in Game 4.
"Kirill's been great. Kirill has got his opportunities," Evason said. "But his desire and his will and his creating plays and finding offense has been real good. We just haven't finished as much as we would like to."
"We would obviously be a little bit more disappointed if they weren't getting those opportunities, but they're getting the opportunities," Evason said. "We believe that goal-scorers like that will break through, and clearly we're hoping that's (Tuesday) night."