Wild rookie goalie Jesper Wallstedt stands out winning his NHL playoffs debut over the Stars

DALLAS (AP) — Minnesota Wild rookie goalie Jesper Wallstedt was a little surprised when told he was starting the postseason opener.

“Obviously I was hoping to play. I wanted to play and I felt like I’d been going good,” Wallstedt said. “A little surprised, but I was very excited as soon as I got the news, and just made sure I was going to be ready.”

Wallstedt certainly was, making 27 saves in his NHL playoffs debut as the Wild beat the Dallas Stars 6-1 in Game 1 of the Western Conference playoffs Saturday.

The Wild went with the 23-year-old Wallstedt in net over playoff-experienced Filip Gustavsson, who in his playoff debut three years ago had 51 saves in a 3-2 double-overtime win at Dallas in a Game 1 then.

Minnesota still led only 1-0 with Dallas on the power play midway through the first period when Wallstedt, shielded and looking to the right of traffic in front of the net, reached back to his left to make a glove save on a shot by Jason Robertson.

“He’s a very confident kid. He’s very confident goaltender,” coach John Hynes said. “And I think the way that he’s playing, and the way he was playing coming in to tonight, he’s made those types of saves and I think it was a big moment. There’s going to be times obviously throughout this series where there’s going to be breakdown. There’s going to be a mistake or there’s going be a great play made by a great player on their team where you’re going need a big-time save at a key time. And we got that tonight.”

Right after Robertson made a back-hander on a power play with 4:50 left in the second period to get the Stars within 4-1, Wallstedt stopped a breakaway shot by their captain Jamie Benn. There was also a 2-on-1 break where the young Swede deflected Wyatt Johnston's shot, then he withstood a flurry of activity when Dallas again had a man advantage early in the third period.

“He looked solid, certainly," Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said. “We need to be better early to test him a little bit more when the heat of the game’s there.”

Wallstedt went 4-1 with a 1.82 goals-against average and .936 save percentage his last five starts of the regular season, and earlier had four shutouts in a six-game span. He had 33 regular-season starts, with a .916 save percentage while setting franchise rookie records with 18 wins and those four shutouts.

He has certainly come a long way since his first NHL game, 7-2 loss at Dallas in January 2024 that was one of only five starts for the Wild until this season, maintaining his rookie status.

“Yeah, that feels like years ago now, which it is,” Wallstedt said. “But I think it shows a lot of growth, and the work that I’ve put in has started to get rewarded from that. I’m very happy of where I am, but there’s still a lot of hockey left.”

___

AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl