For some reason, the Minnesota Wild just seem to have the Dallas' Stars number so far this season. On Friday night at American Airlines Center, the Wild blew a 3-0 lead midway through the second.
And after Dallas took its first lead with 6:31 remaining in regulation after Alex Goligoski scored his first of the season, the Wild forced overtime when Thomas Vanek tied it at 4-4 with 1:52 remaining.
Minnesota then prevailed 5-4 in the extra frame with defenseman Marco Scandella tapping in a pass from Zach Parise, who led the Wild with three assists. Vanek (goal, two assists) also had three points for the visitors.
Dallas (9-10-4), who now heads out on a three-game road trip to Colorado, Toronto and Detroit before returning home to host Montreal next Saturday, saw its three-game winning streak snapped and finishes its season-long five-game homestand at 3-1-1.
In short, this overtime loss, which puts the Stars at 0-4 in the extra frame, kind of summed up Dallas' season through 23 games.
"We've kind of gone both directions. We've got the lead and then the third we give it up. We dug ourselves a hole obviously in this one and fought like crazy to get back in it. The second period we didn't give up a lick I think expect for the goal," Stars head coach Lindy Ruff said.
The Wild led 2-0 after one and 3-0 midway through the second. However, Dallas responded with four unanswered, three of which came in the second and the game was tied at three after 40 minutes of play.
However, once again, it was the Stars' inability to hold that slim 4-3 lead after the go-ahead tally by Goligoski that eventually again proved to be their undoing.
"We got beat back up the ice on the overtime goal and we're pressing trying to get the winner. I don't know exactly what happened on the tying goal," Ruff said. "I don't know if [Benn] tried to get it in the middle or if he just lost it. But it's a play that probably has to stay on the wall."
One of the highlights from the game was the first Dallas goal for veteran Stars winger Ales Hemsky. The seasoned forward scored the first of the game for the Stars in the second, beating Wild goaltender Darcy Kuemper far post after some impressive stick work inside the right circle to create some distance between himself and Minnesota defenseman Nate Spurgeon.
"It's nice to score the goal finally, been a long time," Hemsky said.
Dallas also got two assists from captain Jamie Benn, rookie defenseman Jyrki Jokipakka, the first two helpers of his NHL career and a goal and an assist from leading scorer Tyler Seguin, who continues to pace the NHL with 18 goals.
But in the end, the Stars lost to the Wild for a third time this season, making them 0-2-1 against their Central Division rivals and putting Dallas' divisional record at 0-5-3, a mark which simply isn't good enough for veteran forward Erik Cole, who netted the game-tying goal late in the second period.
"More of the same," Cole said. "It's not enough at times. Let another two points slide by."
Dallas completes the back-to-back on Saturday night at Colorado.
