Stars hope to be more disciplined in Game 3 of Western 1st Round

DALLAS -- The Dallas Stars will find a straighter path toward advancing in the Stanley Cup Playoffs if they continue to kill penalties the way they did in Game 2 of the Western Conference First Round against the Minnesota Wild on Monday.

But the path could get windy and potentially dangerous if they continue to take the number of penalties they have taken in the first two games of this series.

The Stars have been on the penalty kill eight times in two games; they went 4-for-4 in a 4-2 victory in Game 2 to even the best-of-7 series 1-1. In Game 1 on Saturday, Dallas was 2-for-4 on the PK in a 6-1 loss.

Avoiding a similar amount of time in the penalty box will be a priority for the Stars in Game 3 at Grand Casino Arena in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Wednesday (9:30 p.m. ET; HBO MAX, FDSNWI, FDSNNO, Victory+, truTV, TNT, SN360, TVAS).

Forward Mikko Rantanen has taken four penalties; two for high sticking, and one each for slashing and tripping, and Dallas was called for too many men on the ice with a 3-2 lead at 16:16 of the third period in Game 2. 

"We have to be disciplined," Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said. "We talked about playing whistle to whistle a little bit more."

The good news is the Stars managed their PK well in Game 2 by pressuring defenseman Quinn Hughes up top, not allowing the Wild to quickly connect three passes that would have spread them out, and muddling up the area around the net so the puck couldn't get there cleanly.

Dallas won only two of six face-offs short-handed but limited the Wild's power play to five shots on goal.

"A lot more connectivity," Gulutzan said. "We looked at the goals. We know what happened there. 'Nas' (assistant Alain Nasreddine) has got a good eye on it. But a lot of it was battles and better awareness of what they were trying to do and taking it away. We were just a little quicker."

In Game 1, the Wild spread the Stars out, connected passes, won loose puck battles and twice found forward Joel Eriksson Ek in the slot with passes from behind the goal line, resulting in goals off one-timers.

"We definitely made some adjustments that I thought helped," said Dallas forward Colin Blackwell, who had 2:40 of ice time short-handed in Game 2. "(Goalie) Jake (Oettinger) played really, really well. I thought we got clears when we needed to. That was the biggest thing. We did a really good job on the face-offs. It wasn't necessarily working harder, it was maybe working a little bit smarter with some of the adjustments that we did."

Minnesota coach John Hynes said he thought his team helped Dallas' PK by being a bit off in what it was trying to accomplish, and looks to make up for that by making the necessary adjustments for Game 3. 

"Some of our execution needs to be a little bit better," Hynes said. "When you have a plan and you know things that you want to attack, you have to make that sure you're staying with that and then your skill comes out. 

"One of the things that makes our power play really good is we have highly talented players but they're extremely competitive. Puck battles, keeping plays alive, I think that wasn't as strong as it needed to be."

The Wild also didn't have forward Mats Zuccarello (upper-body injury), who had three assists in Game 1, including the secondary assist on each of Eriksson Ek's power play goals. 

Zuccarello's status for Game 3 is not determined, with Hynes saying Tuesday he did not have an update yet. 

If Zuccarello misses more time, Minnesota will have to figure out the power play without his ability to distribute from the left-wing half wall.

But if the Stars keep giving the Wild chances on the power play, odds are they'll eventually get burned with or without Zuccarello on the ice. 

Minnesota had the second-ranked power play in the NHL this season at 28.6 percent, including 27.8 percent in 51 games after Hughes arrived in a trade with the Vancouver Canucks on Dec. 12 and began quarterbacking the top unit.

"One of the keys is as this goes longer, everything's going to get tighter, and you've got to have more discipline than we had (in Game 2) with our stick stuff and the line change," Gulutzan said. "There's a lot of energy in that game, but you've got to manage it as we move forward."