3 Keys: Stars at Wild, Game 4 of Western 1st Round

(2C) Stars at (3C) Wild
Western Conference First Round, Game 4
Minnesota leads best-of-7 series 2-1
6:30 p.m. ET; TBS, SN360, SNE, SNO, SNP, TVAS, BSN, BSWI, BSSW

ST. PAUL, Minn. --The Dallas Stars will try to even the Western Conference First Round when they play the Minnesota Wild in Game 4 at Xcel Energy Center on Sunday.
"Respond and battle hard," Stars forward Tyler Seguin said Saturday.
Jake Oettinger will again start for the Stars. He is 1-2 with a 2.87 goals-against average and .898 save percentage in the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs and coach Peter DeBoer said coverage in front of the goalie must be better.
"You look at the goals last night, we get beat on a face-off, both our guys lose inside position," DeBoer said Saturday. "It's a read you make 99 times out of 100, and box out and stay on the right side. Both our guys lost position, free goal. Get beat 1-on-1, free goal. That's uncharacteristic stuff.
"We've just got to clean that up. This time of year, it's all in the detail."
RELATED: [Complete Stars vs. Wild series coverage]
The Stars are 8-17 (.320) and 4-5 (.444) when starting at home when trailing 2-1 in a best-of-7 series. The Wild are 1-2 (.333) and 1-0 (1.000) when opening on the road and leading a series.
Here are 3 keys for Game 4:

1. Finding consistency

Playing a strong, consistent game in consecutive games has been an issue for the Stars and Wild throughout the series. The Wild were obviously happy with their 5-1 victory in Game 3. Now it's about doing that again in Game 4.
"It's a huge challenge, right?" Minnesota coach Dean Evason said. "We played our game in Game 1 and then we don't. They do and we get smashed (7-3 loss). Then we have an adjustment. We can't keep going like that. We have to play the same way over and over again consistently, not game to game. It's shift to shift as we did (Friday) in order to give ourselves a chance against a great team."

2. Getting Robertson going

Jason Robertson led the Stars with 109 points (46 goals, 63 assists) in 82 regular-season games. Though it's been tougher for the forward to find his rhythm in the playoffs (one goal, two assists), Seguin isn't worried.
"I think the playoffs are all about those moments and different guys stepping up at different times," he said. "You've seen that so far in the first three games and it's only been three games. It's about just rebounding from (Game 3). They played a heck of a hockey game and it's our turn."

3. Klingberg's strong return

John Klingberg made his Wild postseason debut in Game 3 against the Stars, where he played from 2014-22. The defenseman had the two secondary assists on forward Mats Zuccarello's goals while playing 16:38.
Klingberg has been playing on the left side with Brock Faber. An adjustment, but one that's been fairly smooth.
"You get caught sometimes in some situations where you lean toward the right side, but it's been good so far," he said. "I think it's a little bit easier to gap up and keep the game. I feel like it's a lot easier for me as a righty to skate toward my left side skating forward, just because that's when you're on your forehand as well with the puck."

Stars projected lineup

Jason Robertson -- Roope Hintz -- Tyler Seguin
Jamie Benn -- Wyatt Johnston -- Evgenii Dadonov
Mason Marchment -- Max Domi -- Ty Dellandrea
Joel Kiviranta -- Radek Faksa -- Luke Glendening
Ryan Suter -- Miro Heiskanen
Esa Lindell --
Jani Hakanpaa
Thomas Harley -- Colin Miller
Jake Oettinger
Scott Wedgewood
Scratched:Joel Hanley, Nils Lundkvist, Fredrik Olofsson, Riley Tufte
Injured:Joe Pavelski (concussion)

Wild projected lineup

Kirill Kaprizov - Ryan Hartman - Mats Zuccarello
Kirill Kaprizov -- Ryan Hartman -- Mats Zuccarello
Marcus Johansson -- Frederick Gaudreau -- Matt Boldy
Marcus Foligno -- Sam Steel -- Gustav Nyquist
Brandon Duhaime -- Connor Dewar -- Ryan Reaves
Jake Middleton -- Jared Spurgeon
Jonas Brodin -- Matt Dumba
John Klingberg -- Brock Faber
Filip Gustavsson
Marc-Andre Fleury
Scratched:Jon Merrill, Alex Goligoski, Calen Addison, Oskar Sundqvist
Injured:Joel Eriksson Ek (lower body)

Status report

Neither team skated. … Eriksson Ek, a forward, is out after a 19 second shift in Game 3. He was injured April 6.