Game Recap: Wild 4, Stars 0

SAINT PAUL, Minn. -- The Minnesota Wild defeated the Dallas Stars in the last game of the preseason, 4-0. Minnesota went 5-1-0 in preseason play. Goaltender Filip Gustavsson recorded a shutout, stopping 22 shots in the process.

Defenseman Jake Middleton got scoring started when he put one past Dallas goaltender Jake Oettinger with 9:53 left in the first period. He was assisted on the play by Alex Goligoski and Marcus Foligno.

The second period was scoreless for both clubs. Dallas recorded eight shots on goal while Minnesota had six.

At 17:39 in the third period, Dallas replaced Oettinger with Scott Wedgewood in net. A few moments later former Wild forward Sam Steel gave away the puck which the Wild capitalized on, scoring on Wedgewood's first shot faced.

Defenseman Jon Merrill gave Minnesota the 2-0 lead less than three minutes into the third period. He was assisted on the play by Mats Zuccarello.

With 13:28 left in the third period, forward Kirill Kaprizov recorded a power-play goal after Stars' forward Oskar Back was called for holding Foligno. Kaprizov was assisted on the play by forwards Matt Boldy and Zuccarello. Zuccarello recorded his second assist of the night.

A one-timer from forward Marco Rossi solidified the Wild lead to make it a 4-0 game with 8:40 left in the third period. He was assisted on the play by Foligno. Foligno notched his second assist of the game.

On the faceoff after the Rossi goal, newly acquired veteran forward Pat Maroon and forward Jamie Benn dropped the gloves. Each were booked five minutes for fighting. Maroon joined the Wild in July after being traded from Tampa Bay.

Thirty seconds later, forwards Brandon Duhaime and Mason Marchment also squared off. Duhaime was served a 2-5-10 for instigating the fight while Marchment was called for fighting and was given a misconduct. Zuccarello served the two minute instigator penalty for Duhaime.

Minnesota outshot Dallas 23-22. The Wild went 1-3 on the power play and held Dallas to 0-3 with the man advantage.

What else?

Prior to the afternoon matchup, President of Hockey Operations and General Manager Bill Guerin announced that the club had signed forward Ryan Hartman to a three-year, $12M contract extension ($4M AAV) that goes through the 2026-27 season. Read more.

What's Next?

The Minnesota Wild is set to open the 2023-24 regular season against the Stanley Cup runners-up Florida Panthers on Thursday, October 12 at 7:00 pm CT at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.

Minnesota Wild single-game tickets are on sale now at wild.com/tickets, ticketmaster.com and at the Xcel Energy Center Box Office. Flex, 11-Game, half and full season tickets are also available for purchase. Please visit tickets.wild.com or contact a Wild Ticket Sales Representative by calling or texting (651) 222-WILD (9453) for more information. Group reservations of eight or more tickets can contact [email protected] for more information.