Stars, Wild thankful for extra day's rest heading into Game 4

MINNEAPOLIS -- There was a group of players on the floor stretching, others finishing up a late breakfast, and some walking around the hotel lobby on their phones, heading outside for a light walk on a cloudy, misty Minneapolis day.

That was the scene at the Dallas Stars hotel early Thursday afternoon, less than 12 hours after forward Wyatt Johnston scored the early-morning power-play goal at 12:08 of the second overtime that gave the visitors a 4-3 win against the Minnesota Wild in Game 3 of the Western Conference First Round at Grand Casino Arena.

The Stars lead the best-of-7 series 2-1; they and the Wild have two days to recover before Game 4 on Saturday (5:30 p.m. ET; HBO MAX, FDSNWI, FDSNNO, Victory+, truTV, TBS, SNP, SNW, SNO, TVAS).

It's an extra off day built into the series schedule that now feels like a required bonus after playing 92 minutes and eight seconds of high-intensity, high-level playoff hockey.

"I saw a lot of our guys this morning coming into the meal room; people are tired," Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said. "It's late. It's good that we have this series spread out a little bit that we can have a little practice today tomorrow and a game on Saturday, because I think both teams are pretty tired."

Think about how Quinn Hughes must feel. 

The Wild defenseman finished with 43:47 of ice time in Game 3. He led the League in average ice time per game during the regular season at 27:44, but Hughes, who looks like he can skate all night, had never played that much in a single game in his career.

It would have been a bit more too, had he not sat in the penalty box for two minutes in the second overtime for interfering with Dallas forward Mikko Rantanen in the neutral zone.

"It's valuable," Wild coach John Hynes said of the two days between games. "I mean, it was a little bit of a quick turnaround for both teams. Obviously, the hard fought Game 2 (a 4-2 Stars win on Monday) and then coming right back again and playing a double-overtime game. So the fact that we have a couple days I think is really good for group."

Dallas defenseman Miro Heiskanen, who assisted on Johnston's power-play winner, was right behind Hughes with 43:05 of ice time, the most he has played since he skated 41:42 against the Wild in Game 1 of the first round in 2023.

Heiskanen was questionable for Game 1 right up until the night before because of a lower-body injury, and now he's playing 43-plus minutes, including a game-high 9:54 on the penalty kill.

"He's gutted it out and the best part is is he's getting better as the series is going, not only his game play but he's healing up a little bit," Gulutzan said. "You can see he's on a real good path. To play that amount of minutes at that level is impressive, and I think what's even more impressive is just the first game that he played, I don't know where he was quite at there, but now you can see he's improving every day."

The Wild also had defensemen Brock Faber (38:56) and Jared Spurgeon (33:30), and forwards Kirill Kaprizov (36:22), Matt Boldy (34:44) and Joel Eriksson Ek (32:44) play north of 30 minutes in Game 3.

Stars defenseman Esa Lindell (30:16) and Johnston (30:12) did too, with defenseman Thomas Harley (29:23) and forward Jason Robertson (29:05) not far behind.

"They have to refuel," Gulutzan said. "It's hard to play at that intensity if you're not getting any rest. As much as the momentum thing goes, everybody is on the same footing so it's good to get rest for us."

The extra day could be just what the Wild need to get forwards Mats Zuccarello and Yakov Trenin back in the lineup for Game 4; Zuccarello has missed the past two games and Trenin sat out Game 3, each with an upper-body injury.

Hynes said he'll know more about each player's status Friday.

"We'll see," he said. "Hope these couple days help and see we're at."

Minnesota's power play could use Zuccarello's presence as a distributor from the half wall. They were 2-for-4 in Game 1 with Zuccarello picking up assists on the goals scored by Eriksson Ek. They are 1-for-11 in the past two games without him.

Hynes said the coaches spent most of Thursday morning digging into the power play and why it didn't execute well enough, going 0-for-5 from the third period on. They discussed various options, likely scenarios involving if Zuccarello plays Saturday and if he doesn't.

That's part of coaching, though. There are no days off for them. 

The players, on the other hand, used Thursday strictly for recovery, time well spent on an extra off day that couldn't have come at a better time in the series.

"Whatever the players need as far as sports performance, whether it's massage and therapy and all that stuff, has to get done," Gulutzan said, "because you've got to turn around and play one of those games again."

NHL.com senior draft writer Mike G. Morreale contributed to this report