3 Things to Watch: Wild at Stars, Game 2 of Western Conference 1st Round

(2C) Stars at (3C) Wild

Western Conference First Round, Game 2

Minnesota leads best-of-7 series 1-0

9:30 p.m. ET; FDSNWI, FDSNNO, Victory+, ESPN, TVAS2, SN360

DALLAS -- The Minnesota Wild have never taken a 2-0 lead in a best-of-7 series in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. 

That can change Monday, when they play Game 2 against the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center after winning 6-1 on Saturday.

"We look at it as the last time we played Dallas (2023 first round) and we had a lead against them in that series (2-1), so you can't take your foot off the gas," Wild forward Marcus Foligno said. "They've got a lot of experience on that team. We respect them but we don't fear them. 

"Set the bar in Game 1, but we've got to keep raising it."

The Stars have not fallen behind 2-0 in a series since the 2024 first round, when they came back to defeat the Vegas Golden Knights in seven games. 

They are 6-2 in Game 2s after losing Game 1 since 2022.

"I don't love the word urgency, and I don't love the word desperation; I think they're kind of negative and depicting a kind of panic situation or your back against the wall," Stars forward Matt Duchene said. "I just think it's intensity and it's confidence, and it's just being on your toes and going out with that killer instinct, like we're going to win this game. With this team, when we have that, we're (darn) good."

Teams that win Game 1 of a best-of-7 series are 535-252 (.680) all time. Those that take a 2-0 lead are 360-58 (.861), including 90-22 (.804) when starting on the road.

Here are 3 things to watch in Game 2:

1. Oettinger's bounce back

The Stars haven't pinned the Game 1 loss on goaltending, but Jake Oettinger did not make saves to bail them out either, so there's some pressure on him too after he made 23 saves on 28 shots.

Oettinger, don't forget, took a lot of heat at the end of the Stars' run in the playoffs last season, when he was pulled by then-coach Peter DeBoer after giving up goals on the first two shots he faced against the Edmonton Oilers in Game 5 of the Western Conference Final.

He has a 4.16 goals-against average and .847 save percentage in his past six postseason starts.

"My head is in a great spot," Oettinger said. "We've been in this position before. I could have let in 15 goals last game, and it wouldn't matter. It's all about one game at a time, and our job is to come out here tonight, play our best game and win and go from there."

2. Defending the slot

The Wild scored two power-play goals in Game 1 by spreading the puck around, moving it high to low and then to the slot with relative ease. Each time the play started with Quinn Hughes up top and ended with Joel Eriksson Ek scoring from just the left face-off circle close to the hash marks.

Gulutzan said it was effective because Dallas didn't defend the pass to the slot.

He said normally he wouldn't mind if the Wild go with a spread on the power play and try to make the play to get it into the slot because if the Stars are reading it right and defending that area it will force Minnesota to keep the puck on the perimeter. 

When that doesn't happen, the Wild's dangerous power play, ranked third in the League in the regular season (25.2 percent), is given almost a free Grade A look. 

"It's not about packing it in, but when the puck goes below the goal line you don't want it to come out into the slot," Gulutzan said. "Spreads are usually ineffective, but we got beat by it. That's an adjustment we have to make."

3. Second quicks and the rocking chair

Gulutzan had a way with hockey terms after Game 1.

He said the Wild were better with its "second quicks" in Game 1, meaning the Stars were too slow with their support to the puck, that the Wild got there first and that's why they won most of the puck battles and therefore were able to generate more offense.

Gulutzan also said the Stars didn't take the ice in front of them to create transition and they were instead "trying to sit back and make plays out of a rocking chair."

Despite the five-goal difference, this series is expected to be close like the teams were all season. They played four games and each scored a total of 13 goals, so watch for who has quicker puck support, who wins more battles and which team takes the ice it has to create offense through transition. 

"We can move our legs a lot more and try to skate with the puck more than what we did last game," Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen said. "I think there's probably more open ice than you think sometimes. We looked at the video and there's more room to skate and carry the puck."

Wild projected lineup

Kirill Kaprizov -- Ryan Hartman -- Mats Zuccarello

Marcus Johansson -- Joel Eriksson Ek -- Matt Boldy

Vladimir Tarasenko -- Danila Yurov -- Yakov Trenin

Marcus Foligno -- Michael McCarron -- Nick Foligno

Quinn Hughes -- Brock Faber

Jonas Brodin -- Jared Spurgeon

Jake Middleton -- Zach Bogosian

Jesper Wallstedt

Filip Gustavsson

Scratched: Bobby Brink, Robby Fabbri, Viking Gustafsson-Nyberg, Daemon Hunt, Matt Kiersted, Jeff Petry, Nico Sturm

Injuries: None

Stars projected lineup

Justin Hryckowian -- Wyatt Johnston -- Mikko Rantanen

Jason Robertson -- Matt Duchene -- Mavrik Bourque

Sam Steel -- Arttu Hyry -- Jamie Benn

Oskar Back -- Radek Faksa -- Colin Blackwell

Esa Lindell -- Miro Heiskanen

Thomas Harley -- Nils Lundkvist

Lian Bichsel -- Tyler Myers

Jake Oettinger

Casey DeSmith

Scratched: Michael Bunting, Kyle Capobianco, Adam Erne, Ilya Lyubushkin, Alexander Petrovic

Injured: Nathan Bastian (hand), Roope Hintz (lower body), Tyler Seguin (ACL)

Status report

Bogosian (maintenance) did not take part in the morning skate but will be in the Wild lineup, which will be the same from Game 1. … Hintz will remain unavailable for Game 3 on Wednesday, per Gulutzan. The forward has not skated since his injury sustained March 6.