Heika’s Take: Stars squander opportunity, blow two-goal lead in loss to Wild

The Stars officially squandered a point on Friday night.

It seemed like a lot more.

In losing to the Minnesota Wild, 3-2, in overtime, Dallas surrendered an extra point in the Central standings. However, not only did the lads in Victory Green repeat some worrisome trends and cast more doubt upon their own season, they gave their divisional rivals a ton of confidence and maybe one of their biggest wins of the year. Dallas dominated early play, took a 2-0 lead into the third period, and still found a way to lose. Minnesota traveled to Texas on Friday morning because of league protocol with the NHL Holiday Break, and also played without their leading scorer Kirill Kaprizov, who stayed back in Minnesota with an injury.

But the Wild rallied in the third period on the strength of goals by Jonas Brodin and Marcus Foligno, and then won it just 35 seconds into overtime on a dazzling goal by Brock Faber.

“Early morning, 5:30 am wake up and it’s been a long day, and I think everyone just stuck to it and we didn’t have a great start,” said Faber. “We stayed with it and we got a win so it was a huge game for us.”

The Stars, meanwhile, felt like they gave away the game.

“Up two in the third and we let them get back into it,” said Wyatt Johnston, who had a goal and an assist. “We have to be able to finish games out, especially against a divisional opponent. We have to finish it off and not give up those two goals.”

The Stars were in control early, with a 14-4 advantage in shots on goal and a 32-12 edge in shot attempts. Evgenii Dadonov had a nice goal off a pretty pass from Johnston, and Dallas seemed to be in full control. Minnesota looked tired and stretched thin, so the belief was at some point the Wild would simply snap, but Minnesota goalie Filip Gustavsson held strong, and Dallas continued to fail to execute on solid scoring chances.

The Stars had two power plays in the first two periods and then another to start the third. They failed on all three and now have gone 0-for-17 over the past four games.

“You have to put the puck in the net,” said Stars coach Pete DeBoer. “It’s a hard league to win in scoring two goals a night. Obviously, that’s our power play, too. It’s been dry for probably a month here, so we have to find a way to get some goals both there and five-on-five.”

That familiar frustration opened the door for the Wild, and they definitely charged through. Brodin found a hole in Jake Oettinger and the visitors seized on that momentum to score less than a minute later. Foligno jumped up and had a puck deflect off of his pad to tie things up with eight minutes left to play. While the Stars weren’t sitting back in the third period, the Minnesota push caused some nervous moments. Instead of the smooth puck handling team that diced up the Wild early, Dallas turned into a team that was a little scattered.

When overtime started, Faber beat Johnston to the back of the net, and Oettinger got stuck out of position on the near post while Faber executed a perfect wraparound.

“I think it was important,” said Wild coach John Hynes. “The day was challenging in and of itself, and then getting down early, we started to play better and got our footing a little bit more in the second period. I thought the end of the second period gave us some life, and then we came out and stuck with it in the third. That’s what you have to do to win games.”

Dallas is now 20-13-1, good for 41 points. It still remains in a solid spot in the standings, but it had a chance to put a dent in a Wild team that was going through its first struggles of the season. Instead, the Central Division rivals jumped to 22-10-4 (48 points).

The Stars also lost Mason Marchment in the game. The burly power forward, who is second on the team in scoring with 27 points, was hit in the face with a deflected puck. He was visibly bleeding and helped to the dressing room and then was taken to the hospital.

DeBoer said the team will get a better update on Saturday concerning how much time Marchment might miss.

This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.

Mike Heika is a Senior Staff Writer for DallasStars.com and has covered the Stars since 1994. Follow him on X @MikeHeika.