Stars 'make it count' on special teams to outlast Wild in 2OT

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Nobody had to say anything.

Wyatt Johnston, Matt Duchene, Jason Robertson, Mikko Rantanen and Miro Heiskanen knew Dallas' penalty killers had done their job, creating this moment for them very early Thursday morning, the chance for one of them to be the double-overtime hero, the chance to grab a 2-1 lead in the best-of-7 series.

"The same thing was going through everybody's head, if we get a power play or two in OT after the boys killed it off, like some dangerous, dangerous stuff, we've got to make it count," Duchene said. "Our first one we had in overtime was really good, we just didn't score. And it's like, 'OK, if we do that again we're going to put it in.' "

Johnston did at 12:10 of the second overtime, delivering the Stars a 4-3 win against the Minnesota Wild 53 minutes after midnight passed here, four hours and two minutes after the opening face-off for Game 3 of the Western Conference First Round at Grand Casino Arena.

Johnston, the NHL leader with 27 power-play goals in the regular season, floated to the front of the net, found his space and got his stick out enough to deflect Heiskanen's shot from the point past Wild goalie Jesper Wallstedt.

The Stars do have a 2-1 lead in the series with two days before they play Game 4 here on Saturday.

"We're playing at 1 o'clock (in the morning)," Robertson said. "I'm glad that we stayed focused and got it done."

Johnston's goal was Dallas' third on the power play in eight chances, including two opportunities in a span of 5:02 in the second overtime.

But those came after the Stars successfully killed off six consecutive Wild power plays, including five from the third period on, with two coming in overtime, the second spilling through the intermission, with Minnesota on the power play for the first 70 seconds of the second overtime.

Most of the PK stress landed on forwards Radek Faksa and Oskar Back, along with Heiskanen and defense partner Esa Lindell.

Back played 6:57 short-handed and Faksa finished at 5:58, and that's with Faksa picking up his own minor penalty for tripping Kirill Kaprizov in the offensive zone at 6:13 of the third period.

"I feel that's all I did tonight, so many penalties, right, on both sides," Faksa said, laughing.

Heiskanen played a game-high 9:54 short-handed with Lindell right behind him at 8:07. Lindell also sat in the box for two minutes for tripping Kaprizov, his infraction coming 18 seconds into the third period.

There was also Mikko Rantanen's tripping of Quinn Hughes at 12:30 of the third period, Sam Steel's tripping of Hughes at 14:36 of the first overtime and Jamie Benn's holding Nick Foligno in the offensive zone at 19:09 of the first OT.

The Wild had only five shots on goal in their final six power plays, just one on their two opportunities in overtime.

"Listen, we go out there on the power play, it's stressful minutes, but it's not nearly as stressful as the PKers," Robertson said. "They're trying to get the job done, keep it out. We're out there, it's a big difference. You can't say (enough) about the PKers tonight, especially when we were taking on water in the first overtime, then they got another one. They just did their job."

Stressful doesn't even begin to describe what it felt like for the Stars when Faksa lost his stick on Minnesota's first power play in overtime.

"We're all on the bench, I know I was, I had my head down and looking with one eye and just going, 'Good Lord, get through this,' " Duchene said.

Without a stick, Faksa still blocked Matt Boldy's shot from the point and helped clear the rebound by kicking the puck up the ice, out of harm's way.

"Tried to stay calm and all the other three guys did a great job and helped me out and cleared the puck out," Faksa said. "That was huge."

The Stars think they caught a break with Benn's penalty being broken up by the intermission. Yes, the Wild had fresh ice and their best players rested and ready, but the face-off was at center ice and the Stars had the intermission to plan their PK attack.

The Wild iced the puck eight seconds into the power play.

"My history with that is those split power plays like that that occur they're harder on the power play than they are on the penalty kill," Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said. "I don't know the stats but that's just my observation of running a power play the last seven or eight years. I never liked the split ones because you are starting at mid-ice and you've got fresh guys both ways."

The Stars finally got their power play opportunity at 5:54 of the second overtime with Hughes called for interference on Rantanen. Wallstedt had to make a couple of huge saves to keep the game going.

Then Danila Yurov sailed the puck over the glass from the defensive zone at 10:56, an avoidable delay of game penalty had he just sent it high up the middle of the ice, that brought the Stars power play back on the ice.

Robertson and Johnston and Rantanen and Duchene and Heiskanen went back over the boards, all thinking the same thing, no one having to say it.

"We had to step up," Duchene said.

Seventy-two seconds later, they were celebrating, and breathing a deep sigh of relief.

"Survive," Robertson said. "Just survive."