Stars beat Wild, likely securing home ice in playoff matchup

Jess Myers, St. Paul Pioneer Press on Apr 10, 2026

Published in Hockey

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DALLAS – When all the shots, hits, punches, saves and goals were done, and the final horn sounded sending fans out into the warm Texas night, the message sent by the Minnesota Wild and Dallas Stars after 60 minutes of crazy, intense hockey was a simple one:

“Let’s get together and do this again next week.”

When they do, it will almost certainly be at American Airlines Center after Jason Robertson scored the winner in the third period, lifting the Stars to a 5-4 comeback win over the Wild on Thursday.

The Wild got a trio of power-play goals, two of them by Kirill Kaprizov, and held a lead in every period but could not hold off repeated comebacks by Dallas. With the win, the Stars hold a four-point lead in the Central Division standings with three regular season games remaining, and will most likely host the Wild in the first two games of their best-of-seven playoff series which starts next week.

Filip Gustavsson had 15 saves for the Wild, who lost for the first time in April. It was clearly a playoff level of intensity, with double-digit penalty minutes on both teams, and a scrum of some sort after nearly every whistle.

Dallas led early after the Wild made a fruitless early push. With the puck behind the net and Gustavsson looking the other way, Wyatt Johnston was able to pop a shot behind the goalie for his Stars-leading 44th goal of the season.

Minnesota tied it on a classic give-and-go play. Quinn Hughes hit Mats Zuccarello with a long pass at the offensive blue line, and Zuccarello gave it right back, allowing Hughes to sail into the offensive zone and beat Jake Oettinger with a rising wrist shot.

The goal gave Hughes 52 points with the Wild this season, since arriving in mid-December. That is a new franchise single-season record for points by a defenseman. He added a 53rd point with an assist in the second.

Worse than allowing a goal, for the Wild, was a fluke play with just under five minutes left in the first. Joel Eriksson Ek blocked a shot by Dallas defender Miro Heiskanen, only to have the puck roll up Eriksson Ek’s stick and hit the Wild center in the face. He left for the trainers room immediately but returned for the second period wearing a full-shield mask.

Johnston was whistled for tripping Matt Boldy in the final minute of the first, and the Wild power play needed just seconds to give them their first lead. Boldy grabbed a loose puck in the offensive zone and fed a pass to the net front where Kaprizov was waiting for a chip shot and a 2-1 Minnesota lead after 20 minutes.

Kaprizov’s second of the night came on their second power play, and involved a similar scenario, with Boldy again providing the feed. But Dallas answered a short time later, with Colin Blackwell making a nice move to elude Wild defenseman Brock Faber, then zipping a shot to cut Minnesota’s lead to one.

Blackwell’s post-goal celebration touched a nerve among the Wild players on the ice, and drew a rebuke from Nick Foligno. The ensuing scrum ended with Foligno serving four minutes for roughing and Dallas on the power play.

Minnesota killed the penalty, but Dallas tied the game on a broken play late in the middle frame. Cameron Hughes, crashing the net after an initial save by Gustavsson, got his first NHL goal on the play. But the Wild took a lead into the third period on another power-play goal when Hartman tapped in a pass from Jared Spurgeon.

Dallas again tied the game early in the third when Stars top-liner Mikko Rantanen deflected a puck in with his skate — a play that withstood video scrutiny and was allowed to stand. The game winner came when Robertson ripped a puck through a crowd in front of Gustavsson.

Oettinger had 27 saves for Dallas, which won the season series with Minnesota 2-1-1.

The Wild’s final road trip of the season continues on Saturday afternoon, when they visit the Nashville Predators for a 4 p.m. game.

Briefly

With his second period assist on Hartman’s goal, Spurgeon now holds the career record for assists by a Wild defenseman with 315.