Shrink the Special Teams Margins

Jesper Wallstedt has played a solid game in net to start his Stanley Cup Playoff career, despite he and his Wild teammates coming out on the losing end of the last two results. He said after Game 3 that the Wild played well enough to win against Dallas.
Unfortunately for Minnesota, bounces don’t always go the way of a better team in a tight playoff series. 

“I think overall it’s small margins that ends up winning the games,” Wallstedt said. 

Wild coach John Hynes also mentioned it being a game of inches in a series where that type of tight, competitive play would result in such narrow margins between scoring or not, winning or losing. One of the glaring margins the past couple of games is special teams, with Dallas taking an edge in the power-play department. The Wild will look to cash in on the power play more often – and limit the Stars’ chances with the man advantage – in Game 4. 

While the Wild scored a power-play goal from Marcus Johansson to make it a 2-1 deficit near the end of the first period Wednesday, they came up empty on the other six chances. Meanwhile, the Stars took the early lead just 1 minute, 25 seconds into the game when Mikko Rantanen scored on the power play. The Stars ended the game with a Wyatt Johnston tip, also on the power play. 

When these teams faced off three years ago in the first-round playoff series, special teams was ultimately the difference in the Stars advancing in six games. Dallas went 9-for-24 (37.5%) on the power play, scoring multiple goals with the advantage in four of the six games. Through three games in this series, the Stars have already scored six power-play goals on 17 chances (35%), including a 3-for-8 mark in Game 3 and the double-overtime-winner from Johnston. 

Lopsided special teams stats could produce a level of frustration when the offensive production isn’t there, right? 

“Absolutely none. No frustration,” said Matt Boldy after Game 3. “We had our chances. We had our looks. When they come. No frustration there.

“We’re still confident in our group. That was a heck of a hockey game. Back and forth, lot of chances, goals, saves, everything. It’s a long series.” 

The Wild’s power play in the 2023 series was 4-for-22 (18%), going 0-for-5 in games 5 and 6. They were shut out in Game 5 while Dallas went 2-for-6 on the power play. This season, both teams ranked near the top of the league throughout the regular season in power-play percentage. 

The Wild were previously on a roll with three power-play goals in Dallas near the end of the regular season and followed that up by going 2-for-4 in the 6-1 win to open the playoff series. But since then, the Wild are 1-for-11 in games 2 and 3. Special teams obviously wasn’t good enough, and it’s something they planned to dive into in the two off days between games, Hynes said.

“We knew coming in that it was going to be a factor,” Hynes said. “I would say that we had it in Game 1, we didn’t have it in Game 2 and we didn’t have it tonight (Game 3).” 
They had multiple opportunities in the third period of Game 3 to either extend their lead or score the overtime-winner, including a lengthy amount of power-play time to start the second overtime period, and instead saw the Stars bookend their scoring with power-play goals to take the series lead.

“There are some things that we need to execute better,” Hynes said. “Like everything, teams are good at certain things. But in every single system that there is, there are things that you can try to exploit, and then can you execute those at a high level to try to exploit them? 

“I think that’s where, as a power play, that’s where it needs to be a little better.”

The Wild have been without Mats Zuccarello, injured in Game 1 of the series. He’ll be a game-time decision on Saturday. Zuccarello is a huge missing piece to the Wild’s power play success, especially the chemistry he has with Kirill Kaprizov. 

“Mats, it’s always tough to lose someone who play all season in the lineups,” Kaprizov said. “Obviously Mats is a big part of us.” 

Zuccarello had three assists in Game 1, and Kaprizov scored a goal and two assists. Since then, Kaprizov has one assist and four shots in the series. 

“We know the competitive nature of Kirill,” Hynes said. “He’s been a factor in the series, and we’re going to need him to be a factor continuing moving forward.” 

Regardless of the personnel on the ice, moving forward is exactly what the Wild will do with another reset in the series when the puck drops for Game 4 Saturday afternoon. Even with so many good looks on the power play without the desired results, Quinn Hughes, who registered a career-high and franchise-record 43:47 time on ice on Wednesday, said they just have to keep going. 

“You never know when you’re going to get hot on the power play,” Hughes said. “Might be next game. It could be the game after that.”

Even after the loss, Wild players talked about the confidence among the team. They’re prepared for a bounce-back effort in hopes of evening the series on Saturday. 
“I think we’ve played three really good playoff games so far,” Hughes said. “You know, I like our game. Not for one second am I questioning how the next game’s going to go. We’re going to be ready to go.”