The Dallas Stars found the right balance of physicality, hate, and making plays in an impressive 5-4 comeback win against the Minnesota Wild at American Airlines Center on Thursday.

Stars lines

• Hryckowian – Johnston – Rantanen
• Robertson – Duchene – Bourque
• Erne – Hyry – Benn
• Hughes – Bäck – Blackwell

• Lindell – Heiskanen
• Harley – Myers
• Bichsel – Lyubushkin

• Oettinger
• DeSmith

Scratches: Petrovic, Capobianco, Lundkvist (illness), Bunting (injured), Steel (injured), Bastian (injured), Hintz (injured), Faksa (IR), Seguin (SELTIR)

Top story

Physicality and a preview of a HEAVY first-round playoff series.

There are plenty of hockey games that get physical. Post whistle scrums, big hits, etc…

This game was not physical. It was violent.

The scrums turned into haymakers over the top, punch after punch to downed opponents, bodyslams, and blood on the ice. These teams don’t like each other. They showed it for three periods. It left players hurt, including a big one for Dallas — no update on Miro Heiskanen after the game — and between that and the marches to the penalty box, it felt like the two teams were going to finish the game with five skaters a piece.

Now, these two Central Division heavyweights will meet in what should be a ridicoloulsy fast paced and heavy series. It feels like it’s destined to go seven games. Maybe the winner will be the team who can stay the most calm when the battle gets heated and still find way to make plays.

“Yeah, you’re going to have to,” Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said when asked about superstars getting involved in the physicality and still making plays. “And every superstar is going to get into that as we go forward. 
So, we’re no exception. But I did like a lot of our responses from our guys and our team toughness, for sure.”

Either way, I can’t wait to watch it.

Live game notebook

Period 1

• Minnesota has the better start tonight. Forecheck is giving Dallas trouble.
• Once Dallas finally gets into the offensive zone, a bouncing puck finds its way onto the stick of Wyatt Johnston, as it usually does, on the side of the net. He uses those elite hands to quickly pull it back in front onto the forehand and tuck it short side with Filip Gustavsson facing the wrong direction.

• Not a ton of physicality so far in this rivalry game. (HA – looking back at this after that game is hilarious).
• Holy Quinn Hughes. Our guest on Wednesday’s DLLS show, Jess Myers, was pretty blunt about the fact that Hughes is what makes them a different team than previous years. A team, which they believe is capable of beating Dallas. Well, if Hughes is going to fly through the neutral zone, execute a perfect give-and-go and paste a shot off the far post and in past Jake Oettinger, then yes. I agree, they have a chance.

• Joel Eriksson Ek has the luck of Mason Marchment. Guy gets hit in the face with a lot of pucks and sticks. He deflects Miro Heiskanen’s pass at center ice, and the puck ramps up into his face. He goes right off the ice and down the tunnel.
• Uh oh. Heiskanen takes a big hit from Ryan Hartman into the end boards behind the Dallas net. He gets up slowly and eventually skates gingerly to the bench and down the tunnel. He did not return during the period. This can’t happen to the Stars again. Yeesh.

• Now Danila Yurov leaves the game for Minnesota. Blood bath tonight.
• Minnesota has scored twice, both beautiful goals. This one was a pretty setup by Matt Boldy to Kirill Kaprizov on the power play to give the Wild their first lead. Dallas is probably furious that there was not a holding call earlier in the shift as Mikko Rantanen carried the puck around the Minnesota net. Then, Johnston gets a glove in the face and ends up tackling a Wild player. Johnston gets the penalty, and Minnesota gets the goal.

• At this rate, nobody will be on the ice for Game 1 of this series.

Wild 2, Stars 1

Period 2

• Heiskanen has not returned to start the second period. Eriksson Ek is back with a bubble on. Yurov also did not return for the Wild.
• This game has really been a bloodbath. Matt Duchene got his from behind and stayed down for a bit. Hartman took a punch from Esa Lindell up high and looked to be bleeding. And Oettinger got up slowly after the netfront scramble.
• Minnesota scores on the ensuing power play, as Oettinger makes a pretty incredible glove save sliding to his left on a one-timer, but the rebound lands right on Kaprizov’s stick. All of a sudden, it’s 3-1 Minnesota.

• Colin Blackwell has some pretty sick skill. We have seen it before, and tonight, he dances Brock Faber in the high slot and beats Gustavsson five hole. Then, all hell breaks loose with Blackwell, the Foligno brothers, and everybody on the ice. Dallas gets a power play out of it. Blackwell said, “that’s playoff hockey.”

• Everybody is either injured or in the box. Checks out.
• Blackwell gets a good chance off the rush, and Cameron Hughes buries the rebound for his first NHL goal! Blackwell immediately goes to get the puck for the milestone, and the crowd gives Hughes a standing ovation as they announce his first goal. Cool moment for a player who could’ve potentially been the AHL MVP. Big congratulatins to him, as well as Andrew Stegehuis of the equipment staff for working his 1,000th game.

• Hughes has played nearly 21 minutes and has two points. It’s only the second period.
• OOF, Minnesota gets a late backbreaker goal, as Hartman beats Ilya Lyubushkin to the net and tips in a shot pass by Jared Spurgeon on the power play with only 11 seconds left in the period. Huge goal for the Wild.

Wild 4, Stars 3

Period 3

• Oettinger makes a huge save on Eriksson Ek off the rush on the backside. Faber made a slick pass through the seam after letting the rush slide past him.
• Rantanen had been a bit quiet, for his standards, but he opens up the boot and deflects Harley’s point shot in to tie the game. It was Harley’s 100th NHL assist.

• After a long sequence in the Dallas end, where they continued to turn pucks over and feed the Minnesota pressure, the Stars finally got on the attack.
• Robertson wins a battle on the forecheck, the puck eventually finds Esa Lindell coming downhill from the left point, he makes a great seam pass back to Robertson, who is patient enough to allow the traffic in front to clear out, then rips a wrister low to the blocker to give Dallas its first lead in quite a while. Robertson said the pass was so perfect from Lindell that it allowed him time to pick his head up and pick his spot. This game really rocks.

• Yurov is also back for Minnesota. So, the only injured player not to return is Heiskanen.
• I have barely had time to write anything here because there is a brawl or scrum of some kind after literally every whistle, and it’s awesome. Some really good plays to kill off a late Minnesota power play, especially from Arttu Hyry and Blackwell. Rantanen comes out of the box and tries to beat Hughes up the ice to score into an empty net. They tangle, bodyslam each other, then immediately turn to hugging and laughing on the ice. Hilarious.
• This was a statement win. And Dallas now sits further in the driver seat for home ice in round one.

Final: Stars 5, Wild 4

Quotable

Stars coach Glen Gulutzan

“I thought our guys did a really good job rallying back from [the power-play goals against] and then rallying hard in the third to get the win. I thought it was a good character win.”