Heika’s Take: Stars can’t find tying goal late as season ends in Minnesota

Game 6, it turns out, was a lot like the rest of the series.

The Minnesota Wild made a lot of solid plays and was the better team, beating Dallas on Thursday to win the best-of-seven series in six games. That sends Minnesota to the Second Round for the first time since 2015 and ends the season for the Stars in the First Round for the first time since 2022.

“I did see the series in this game,” Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said after a 5-2 loss that included two empty net goals. “Give them credit, they did a lot of great things, but we didn’t make them work hard enough for their Grade A’s. I thought we could have been better defensively.

“You look at the series, and they played better than us,” the coach added. “That’s what it comes down to.”

The Wild put together a solid run in the second half of the season. They added defenseman Quinn Hughes in December, got better as a group and then trusted rookie goalie Jesper Wallstedt to get the job done in the playoffs. The combination of the 23-year-old backstop and great team defense led to the Stars getting just one 5-on-5 goal over the final three games of the series.

“Wallstedt played really well and they’re a really good defensive team,” said forward Matt Duchene. “You see the metrics and we had our looks, we had our shots, we had our shot attempts, and we just weren’t able to produce enough 5-on-5.”

Dallas had a 23-21 advantage in shots on goal on Thursday and shot attempts were 50-49 for Minnesota. But the Wild cashed in first…and then when they needed it most. Hughes gave Minnesota a 1-0 lead six minutes into the game, and Dallas then tied it up in the second period on a Wyatt Johnston power play goal.

The Stars finished 10-for-25 on the power play, but added just five more goals in the series. Minnesota went 4-for-25 with the man advantage but finished with 23 goals in the series.

“We played hard,” Duchene said. “It felt like every time we made a mistake it ended up in our net. It wasn’t for lack of trying to score, but we didn’t get the bounces that we needed and they did at times.”

Dallas took a 2-1 lead late in the second period when Mavrik Bourque scored his first career playoff goal. Michael Bunting put a puck near the net and Bourque scrambled to get to the rebound.

But just as quickly as the Stars took the lead, Minnesota tied things up again. Dallas made a mistake in its own end as Hughes took a soft clear at the point and sent it straight to the net. Vladimir Tarasenko cleaned up the rebound and the game was tied.

Then Dallas had another turnover in its own zone midway through the third period and Hughes fired another shot at the net, with this one deflecting in off of Dallas defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin for the game-winner.

“That’s a heck of a team and they played really well,” Duchene said. “I thought that was a pretty even game. They got the last bounce off of a skate and that kind of summed up the series.”

Dallas pulled goalie Jake Oettinger to push for a tie, but the Wild scored twice into the empty net. That sends the Stars home for the summer and frustrated by the first-round loss.

“There are probably six to eight of us in the league and somebody wins and somebody loses, and that’s a hard pill to swallow,” Gulutzan said when asked about the disappointment of having Stanley Cup aspirations and losing in the First Round. “With the regular season success you have had, you expect more, but it just goes to show how hard it is to win.”

Dallas had 50 wins and 112 points during an injury-plagued season, so the bar was high. But the Stars played the entire series without Roope Hintz and Tyler Seguin and then lost Nils Lundkvist in the playoffs.

“It’s been one of those years where we have had some tough injuries and we played shorthanded pretty much the whole season and we still found ways to compete,” Duchene said. “Hopefully, we get a little better luck with that next year and we get our full squad. We still have the guys who are able to do it. But it’s another year gone and you don’t accomplish your goal and that’s the worst part for me.”

Dallas has to find a way to sign restricted free agent Jason Robertson, but it has most of the rest of its current roster under contract. That creates a lot of optimism already.

“We have a great team and great players. I’m really confident we will get back and get better,” said defenseman Miro Heiskanen.

This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.

Mike Heika is a Senior Staff Writer for DallasStars.com and has covered the Stars since 1994. Follow him on X @MikeHeika.