*Photo from the San Diego Union Tribune*
Series tied 1-1
Game two of this series was simply the Roope Hintz show. Hintz scored 3 goals for the hat trick, Miro Heiskanen had 4 assists, and the Dallas Stars rolled past the Minnesota Wild with a 7-3 win on Wednesday night in Dallas.
After losing the series opener on Monday, the Stars put together a strong response to even the series. Heiskanen had 4 assists while Evgenii Dadonov had two goals, but the star was Hintz, who got a hat trick thanks to goals at even strength, on the power play, and shorthanded.
Stars head coach Pete Deboer said of Hintz that "Hintz is elite and he's capable of taking over games like that, and we needed him. Our team with what happened with Joe the other night, a little bit rattled, we needed our best players to step up tonight and make a statement. And they did, every one of them, not just Roope."
Hintz scored shorthanded 4:14 into the game to give the Stars a 1-0 lead on his second goal of the playoffs. Tyler Seguin then made it a 2-0 lead for the Stars thanks to a power play goal, assisted by Heiskanen and Jason Robertson. Oskar Sundqvist scored for the Wild to make it a 2-1 game after one period.
Jamie Benn scored on the power play for the Stars 4:07 into the second period, making their lead 3-1. Dadonov then followed that with a goal of his own to make it a 4-1 lead for the Stars. Marcus Johansson and Frederick Gaudreau scored for the Wild to make it 4-3 before Dadonov scored again to make it 5-3 Stars.
At the 16:56 mark of the second, Hintz scored unassisted to make the Stars lead 6-3 on his second goal of the night and 3rd of the playoffs. The only goal of the 3rd period came from Hintz, capping the hat trick with a power play goal to make it 7-3 Stars.
Hintz said after the game that "It was way better start than last game. That's how we have to start here at home especially. And when we go on the road, we have to play there like we used to play there in the regular season."
Getting the start for the Stars in goal was Jake Oettinger, who had a solid game as the Stars tied the series. Oettinger turned away 23 of the 26 shots that the Wild sent at him, giving him a .885 save percentage in the win.
After Filip Gustavsson started game one for the Wild, it was Marc-Andre Fleury who started game two. Fleury got tagged with the loss after getting hit hard, making only 24 saves on 31 Dallas shots, good for just a .774 save percentage.
Wild forward Gustav Nyquist said that "This is just a weird game, I thought, to be honest. I think we started the game good. We came out with a lot of jump and got it back to 2-1. The same in the second, we got it back to 4-3. Just lost ourselves a little bit, gave them a couple easy chances that we usually don't do. Just sharpen that up and we'll be good to go."
Up next, the series shifts North to Saint Paul, Minnesota, for games 3 and 4. Game 3 is set for Friday night, with both teams chasing the go ahead win to take the series lead.
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