Recap: Stars take it to the Wild with emphatic 7-4 victory

DALLAS --Leave it to the Stars to have their biggest night on the scoresheet against the top team in the Central Division. Setting a single-game high for goals in a game this season, the Stars' offense erupted in a 7-4 victory over the Minnesota Wild in front of a raucous sold-out crowd of 18,237 at American Airlines Center on Monday.

For all the scoring woes the Stars had over the course of their recent five-game losing streak, they made up for it against one of the stingiest teams in the league. Minnesota entered the game with 85 goals allowed - the fifth fewest in the NHL.
That meant little to the Stars, who jumped out early, scoring twice within the first 3:30 of the game and adding another before the opening 20 minutes finished.
In all, the Stars had seven different goal scorers and 12 players with at least one point. It gave the Stars wins in consecutive games as they enter the holiday break. (Earlier it was announced the league would begin the break
upon conclusion of games on Dec. 21
).
"We wanted to pay them back for the game we had in Minnesota and we wanted to come out hard, and we did that," Stars head coach Rick Bowness said to reports after the game. "We wanted to come out hard in the third period. It was a one-goal game, and we were going after them. We did and I was happy with that. I don't like giving up four goals, but they're a very good hockey team over there. It was a hell of a hockey game."
Joe Pavelski and Esa Lindell got the party started early with quick-strike goals before Wild goaltender Cam Talbot knew what hit him.
Pavelski continued his torrid pace by picking up his fifth point in the past two games and his 12th goal of the season. With an assist, Jason Robertson's point streak at home reached eight consecutive games placing him in a tie with Colorado's Gabe Landeskog for the longest active home point streak in the NHL.

Lindell's goal came while the Stars were on the penalty kill, and it was a beauty. The normally defensive-minded defenseman raced down the ice and snuck a shot through the five-hole for his first goal of the season and fourth shorthanded goal of his career.

After the Wild scored two unanswered goals from Ryan Hartman and Jonas Brodin, the Stars responded with two of their own from Tyler Seguin and Roope Hintz.
"Roope's been doing a hell of a job for us, and we need three lines to partake to try to help out the best they can," said Stars captain Jamie Benn. "One goal can go a long way with your confidence and now we got to sit on that for five days here."
Seguin's goal came off a silky feed from Denis Gurianov at the 16:43 mark of the opening frame and just 61 seconds after Brodin's game-tying marker.

Hintz doubled the lead at the 8:02 mark of the middle frame when he wired a wrister from the left dot on the power play for his 12th goal of the season.

After Minnesota's Kirill Kaprizov got one back in the closing minutes of the second period, the Stars tacked on two more from Jacob Peterson and Miro Heiskanen 60 seconds apart in the opening minutes of the third.

Benn scored into an empty net with 1:32 left in regulation to give the Stars their seventh goal of the game.

With their next two games postponed, the Stars are scheduled to resume action on Monday, Dec. 27 at home against Nashville.
"We just heard about it now so I've got to digest it all," Bowness said on the early start to the holiday break. "I was looking forward to going into Chicago and getting a road win, and that's obviously not happening. We're still kind of digesting it, the whole thing here. I just heard about it after the game so we've got to digest the game and then we'll figure out what we're doing. We're not doing anything until December 26 at two o'clock."
This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.
Kyle Shohara is the Digital Manager for DallasStars.com and writes about the Stars/NHL. Follow him on Twitter @kyleshohara.