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Radulov's hat trick keys Stars' big rally to beat Wild 6-3
DALLAS (AP) — Alexander Radulov heard the fans booing. He heard what his teammates were saying. And he heard cheers as the same fans showered the ice with hats in his honor.
Radulov had a hat trick, scoring late in the second period and twice in the third, as the Dallas Stars rallied from a three-goal deficit to beat the Minnesota Wild 6-3 on Tuesday night.
Roope Hintz, Joe Pavelski and Tyler Seguin also scored for Dallas, which didn't get on the board until Radulov's goal with 48 seconds left in the second period.
He took a dive across the slot to reach the puck on the end of his stick and send it inside the right goalpost.
"I thought that that effort by the Seguin line culminated with that dive for the top corner of the goal," Stars coach Jim Montgomery said. "The crowd got into the game, and the players just took over from there.
"You go to the intermission and now you're starting to think you're down 3-nothing. Going down 3-1, you just scored a goal, it's a big difference mentally."
Eric Staal, who celebrated his 35th birthday, had a power-play goal and an assist on Jason Zucker's goal in the first period for Minnesota. Ryan Suter scored in the second for the Wild.
"Going into the third period up two goals," Suter said, "you should be motivated and ready to step on them, finish off the game and do the right things."
Anton Khudobin made 11 saves for the Stars after relieving Ben Bishop to begin the second period. Bishop stopped eight of 10 shots he faced.
"We just felt he wasn't on top of his game," Montgomery said. "That's all."
Dallas has won four of five games after beginning the season 1-7-1.
Alex Stalock made 31 saves for the Wild, who remained in last place in the Central Division. Minnesota had won three of four.
After the first period, it appeared that the Wild would make it four of five.
Fans booed as the Stars left the ice.
The crowd was frustrated because the players expected to score hadn't been scoring. Seguin, who had 33 goals last season, entered the game with two this year. Pavelski, coming off 38 goals, also had two. And Radulov, with 29, had only one.
"We heard that (booing)," Radulov said, "but they had all the rights to do that. I like that. You want to prove to everybody that you play with emotion, and that's what we did today."
Still, the Stars trailed by two goals after two periods.
"We were sitting on the bench and talking about, 'Let's go. Let's work hard for each other, and we'll see where it's gonna be,'" Radulov said. "Then we scored and they didn't."
And the Stars kept scoring. On the last, with 30 seconds to play, Radulov found an empty net, and down came a shower of hats.
Hintz had scored 4:09 into the third period to cut Minnesota's lead to 3-2, and Pavelski tied it midway through the period. Radulov scored his second of the night with 8:29 to play for a 4-3 lead.
Seguin scored Dallas' fourth goal of the period with 1:40 left
Pavelski and Seguin each had a goal and two assists.
NOTES: Staal's only previous birthday goal was also against Dallas, in 2016. He has seven birthday assists, including four in a game at Pittsburgh in 2005. ... Dallas D Andrej Sekera didn't play after slamming into the boards behind the net Saturday. ... The Stars' lowest season success rate on the power play is 14% in 2010-11. ... Wild LW Jordan Greenway returned after missing two games while in the league's concussion protocol. LW Kevin Fiala (upper-body injury) has been out for four games. G Devan Dubnyk (upper body) has missed three games but is likely to be in goal Wednesday at St. Louis. ... Bishop had won four straight starts against the Wild.
UP NEXT
Wild: At St. Louis on Wednesday in the opener of a home-and-home series against the Blues.
Stars: At Colorado on Friday.
