Roussel's strange goal helps Stars defeat Wild again

DALLAS-- Antoine Roussel scored a peculiar goal, Kari Lehtonen made 25 saves, and the Dallas Stars defeated the Minnesota Wild 2-1 in Game 2 of the Western Conference First Round at American Airlines Center on Saturday.
"I've seen some crazy [goals], I've seen some that are similar, but I don't think I've seen one that's gone to review where you don't whether it went in, where you don't know if the net's off, don't know if it was a high stick, you don't know whether it was kicked, so there were a lot of options there to go over," Stars coach Lindy Ruff said.

Dallas took a 2-0 lead in the best-of-7 series. Game 3 is at Xcel Energy Center on Monday (8:30 p.m. ET; CNBC, SN, TVA Sports 2, FS-SW, FS-N, FS-WI).
Roussel gave the Stars a 1-0 lead 3:54 into the second period. While he was behind the net, the puck hit his skate and deflected into the air. It went over the back of the net, hit goalie Devan Dubnyk near his nameplate, and dropped over the goal line.

The play was reviewed to see if the net was dislodged prior to the puck crossing the line, but the goal was upheld.
"I wasn't sure it crossed the line. I had a feeling that I might get it reversed," Roussel said. "[Dubnyk] just pushed off the net in those circumstances. That's good for us, and I was so happy. That was a big goal for us."
Wild coach John Torchetti asked an official for an explanation immediately after the review was complete.
"I asked, 'What can I call here? He said, 'We reviewed the kick, we reviewed the high stick, we reviewed the net and the whistle,'" Torchetti said.
Jamie Benn scored his second goal of the series to give Dallas a 2-0 lead 10:23 into the third period. Cody Eakin sprung Benn with a pass off the boards from inside the Dallas zone. Benn received the puck inside the neutral zone before scoring on the breakaway with a backhand through Dubnyk's five-hole.
"[I] just caught a break," Benn said. "I don't even know what happened to their [defenseman], but [Eakin] made a great pass and I kind of got lucky with a bounce off my skate and off the boards, and just found a way to put it home."

Marco Scandella scored the Wild's first goal of the series at 12:42 to make it 2-1.
"Marco scored a goal for us on the power play. Now that'll get us turning the other way," Torchetti said.
Scandella beat Lehtonen far post with a slap shot from the left point. It was Minnesota's second goal in 12 periods of play, dating to the regular season.
Minnesota outshot Dallas 8-4 in the third period. Lehtonen made a save on Mikko Koivu at close range with 27.1 seconds remaining and the Wild using an extra attacker.
Minnesota got a power play when Patrick Eaves was called for cross checking with 4.4 seconds remaining, but Dallas won the faceoff and cleared the puck.
"It's a battle and you try to read where the guys are," Lehtonen said. "At the end of the day, it's just a crazy battle and that was nice that we were able to keep them out."

Dallas won Game 1, 4-0 on Thursday.
"Overall our game was a lot better, and that's a good sign," Koivu said. "We came up short, but if we keep getting those kinds of chances, and we can create with putting pressure on their [defense], I believe it's a matter of time that we get rewarded too, and get some goals, and hopefully get the lead."
The Wild have 47 shots on Lehtonen through the two games, a bit fewer than Torchetti prefers.
"No, we need more. You always need more if you have one goal in two games," he said. "We've got to get some more traffic and that's the No. 1 thing. They're doing a good job fronting and we've got to get pucks through them."
Dallas forward Tyler Seguin played his first game since an Achilles injury sustained on March 17. He had one shot in 15:40 of ice time.
"Playoff games are different than just trying to step in regular season, so [Seguin] is playing catch-up a little bit for us," Ruff said.