Johnston scores on power play, Stars defeat Wild in 2OT in Game 3

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Wyatt Johnston scored a power-play goal at 12:10 into the second overtime to give the Dallas Stars a 4-3 win against the Minnesota Wild in Game 3 of the Western Conference First Round at Grand Casino Arena on Wednesday.

Johnston, who led the NHL with 27 power-play goals in the regular season, scored on a deflection from the slot off a shot from the point by Miro Heiskanen for the winner.

"I don't really exactly remember getting bumped, just trying to get to the net," Johnston said. "We're trying to get some more pucks there, trying to get some opportunities around the net. I'd have to look at it again and see, it's kind of a little blurry, but just trying to get to the net and trying to get my stick on the puck."

Jason Robertson and Matt Duchene each had a goal and two assists, and Johnston and Mikko Rantanen each had a goal and an assist for Dallas, the No. 2 seed from the Central Division. Jake Oettinger made 28 saves.

"It's the time of year where you just got to stick with it," Dallas coach Glen Gulutzan said. "You can't get frustrated. It's not even an emotion that helps at this time of the year. We're playing against an elite team, elite killers. The swings are going to go that way. It's not going to be a smooth ride ... but you’ve got to stick with it and stay confident."

The Stars lead the best-of-7 series 2-1. Game 4 is here on Saturday (5:30 p.m. ET; HBO MAX, FDSNWI, FDSNNO, Victory+, truTV, TBS, SNP, SNW, SNO, TVAS).

Marcus Johansson, Joel Eriksson Ek, and Michael McCarron scored for Minnesota, the No. 3 seed in the Central Division. Jesper Wallstedt made 32 saves.

"We're still confident in our group," Wild forward Matt Boldy said. "That was a heck of a hockey game. Back and forth, a lot of chances, goals, saves, everything. We're confident in our group. It's a long series so this whole narrative that we're frustrated and all this, that's not true. We're so confident in our group so let's nip that in the bud now because it's made up."

Dallas went 3-for-8 on the power play and Minnesota was 1-for-7. 

"You never know when you're going to get hot on the power play," Minnesota defenseman Quinn Hughes said. "It could be next game, could be the game after that. Whether we were 4-for-4 on the power play or whatever we were, that doesn't change how we have to approach the next game.

"We're going to need it again. It obviously felt like we had our looks for it to be the difference and it just didn't go."

The Stars took a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal at 1:25 of the first period. Robertson skated over the blue line down the left wing and led Rantanen, who got behind Boldy, down the slot for the redirection just inside the right post.

"You look around the League, it comes down to (special teams)," Robertson said. "Every team is so tight, every team defends hard. You’ve got to take advantage when you can. We definitely think we can improve a little bit of our 5-on-5 offense, and we’ll look at that and try to improve for Game 4."

Robertson pushed it to 2-0 on a snap shot from the right face-off circle, beating Wallstedt under his left glove at 13:48.

Johansson pulled the Wild within 2-1 with a power-play goal on a wrist shot from the high slot through a screen at 18:20 that deflected in off two Dallas players.

Eriksson Ek tied it 2-2 on a snap shot from the right hashmarks following a tremendous effort by Boldy, who fended off forward Sam Steel and defensemen Lian Bichsel and Tyler Myers in the left face-off circle before finding Eriksson Ek at 5:00 of the second period.

McCarron scored his first playoff goal in nine NHL seasons to give the Wild a 3-2 lead on a wrist shot from the top of the right circle at 17:25. The goal came seven seconds after the Wild denied the Stars on a pair of power plays, including a 5-on-3 advantage for 41 seconds.

Duchene tied it at 3-3 when he scored a power-play goal on a snap shot from the bottom of the left face-off circle at 10:18 of the third period.

The Wild were unable to convert on three power plays in the third period and two more in the first overtime.

"We lost (the special teams battle) tonight, so it's not good enough, but we knew coming in, it was going to be a factor," Minnesota coach John Hynes said. "We got two days in between games to see if we can get it rolling."

Said Gulutzan: "From my experience and I think in the last few years, I've been in about three of these that went a couple periods and I don't think it gives you any momentum other than the win for carryover. Whether it's 6-1 or in OT, I think every game is its own entity. Momentum can swing in a series so quickly both ways. It's just like tuck it away and move on."

NOTES: Johnston became the eighth player in Stanley Cup Playoffs history with six game-winning goals before age 23. ... Rantanen scored his 44th career playoff goal and tied Teemu Selanne for the third most by a Finnish player in NHL history. ... Robertson became the fourth Stars/Minnesota North Stars player to score in each of the first three games to begin a postseason, following Steve Payne (four games in 1981), Dave Gagner (three, 1994) and Dino Ciccarelli (three, 1981). ... Hughes played a franchise record 43:47 of ice time.