Plenty of stars for Wild in total team win over Canucks

Pick your hero.
Is it Alex Stalock, the Wild's "backup" goaltender who was so good down the stretch, earned himself the Game 1 start then backstopped the team to just the fifth postseason shutout in franchise history?
Is it the hometown hero, Jared Spurgeon, who scored each of the Wild's final two goals on Sunday and now has five goals -- FIVE! -- in his past two games played at Rogers Place?

Is it Kevin Fiala, who picked up right where he left off at the end of the regular season more than four months ago by getting the Wild on the board with a power-play goal 2:50 into the game?
Is it Marcus Foligno, who dropped the mitts in the opening minutes in an effort to put some emotion into a game featuring two teams playing in an empty arena?
Is it Ryan Hartman, an unsung hero who won't see his name on the scoresheet but who did a little bit of everything?
How about Eric Staal and his two assists? He was inches away from having two goals to go with them.
Go down the roster and you'll find a number of heroes on Sunday night in the Wild's 3-0 win against the Vancouver Canucks in the first game of its best-of-5 qualifying round series. Minnesota now leads the series 1-0 with Game 2 set for Tuesday night.
The win Sunday was one of the most complete team victories in recent memory, where literally everyone in the lineup played a key role.

"I think as a group, we have a lot of experience," Spurgeon said. "Playoff hockey is a different beast than regular season and it's not always fancy. We did a good job of getting pucks deep and sort of grinding out their D and when they did get it, our forwards did a great job coming back to let us stay up and have great gaps."
Spurgeon continues to fly under the radar as one of the NHL's top defenseman, and not just offensively. There is a sense of calmness when he's on the ice and rarely does he make a mistake.
More often than not, he's doing something extraordinary, like he did on his first goal just past the midway point of the contest. Canucks goaltender Jacob Markstrom attempted to rim the puck around and out of the zone, but Spurgeon was there to catch it off the glass. He fired a cross zone pass to Staal along the left-wing wall, then positioned himself near the right circle, in perfect position to receive a return pass and fire quick through Markstrom's legs for a two-goal lead.
Until then, it seemed like the Wild was in danger of losing its grip on the game, as Markstrom had stymied Minnesota on several grade-A chances in the first period to keep the Canucks within striking distance.
Spurgeon's goal calmed things down, and when he buried a shot into the empty net with under a minute to play, the game was over.

"A lot of good plays from my teammates and giving me lots of time," said Spurgeon, who also assisted on Fiala's goal. "Obviously, we're lucky that they were going in today for myself, but next game is going to be someone else and Kev got us started off with that power play and we just fed off of that."
Spurgeon's first of the night was MInnesota's second with the man advantage and doubled its total from Wednesday in the Wild's lone exhibition game against the Colorado Avalanche.
In that game, Minnesota scored early in the game then watched six more power play chances go by with nary a goal, or even a prime scoring chance to its credit. That ended up being the difference in a 3-2 loss.
"When you get the opportunities like last game, they didn't go in, but playoffs are so important for penalty kill and power play," Fiala said. "Special teams are huge, and today we did a great job, so we just have to continue."
Minnesota's penalty kill was needed just once on the night, with under five minutes to play, and was successful against the NHL's fourth-best power play during the regular season.
Keeping that discipline will be critical moving forward.

"Every coach is talking about discipline at this time of the year," said Wild coach Dean Evason. "Obviously in the playoffs you want to hold your composure. It's a heck of a lot easier to do that when you have the lead. There's no question about that.
"We thought from the drop of the puck we played hard but we played between the whistles. We didn't get involved after the whistles so we were pleased with that area of our game."
Evason's decision to start Stalock ended up being brilliant. He made 29 saves to earn his first career postseason victory in his second career start and first since 2014, when he was a member of the San Jose Sharks.
"He made some key saves at key moments," Evason said. "Honestly he was calm. He competes. He battles. He's explosive. But he's a calming effect in there. Obviously, he plays the puck very well. We thought he froze the puck when we needed the game to be settled down. And he plays the puck extremely well and we thought he was very intelligent when he did."

Calm is certainly not a word used often to describe the energic Stalock, but he was on Sunday. Late in the first period and early in the second, as Vancouver was owning a large part of the momentum and puck possession, Stalock made several quality saves to keep his line clean.
He had a couple of really nice glove saves, but he kicked out few rebounds and played ... calm.
"I'm excited ... to get a chance to start in playoffs," Stalock said. " Anytime you can play in an important game, obviously, the most important game of the season so far. Played a good game, we came out and played exactly how we wanted to play intensity wise and stuck to the game plan."
That gameplan seems like a good recipe in a short, compact playoff series that the Wild has a chance to take firm control of with another similar effort on Tuesday night.
Expect the Canucks to throw everything they have.
"We were the team that initiated the physicality and just the smart play," Foligno said. "We had a great legs on the backcheck, we really annoyed their top players. I think that's what you need.
"We're definitely the team that had the best start, the better start and it's something that we stress coming into this first round. It's three games, first to three wins. That's what makes it more pressured and stressful. Getting that first one's big, but now it's on the game two."
Related:
Postgame Hat Trick: Wild 3, Canucks 0