3 Takeaways From the Wild’s Game 1 Victory Over the Stars – The Hockey Writers – Minnesota Wild

The Minnesota Wild captured a huge Game 1 win on the road in Dallas with a dominating 6-1 performance. Every team will tell you they just want to win one game through the first two on the road, and the Wild did it in a spectacular effort.

I can’t complain about anyone who wore a Wild jersey last night, but here are my three takeaways from the huge win.

The Top Line Wasn’t Alone

One of the things I mentioned in my last article, where I went over five players to watch for the Wild in Round 1, was the need for depth scoring.

In last year’s first-round loss to the Vegas Golden Knights, just seven Wild players recorded a goal in the series. In this game alone, there were four different goal scorers for the Wild, and while we still saw Kirill Kaprizov get one, this team produced without him carrying the load.

They got goals from Kaprizov, Matt Boldy, Ryan Hartman and one of the players I said to watch, Joel Eriksson Ek. While nobody in the bottom six got one, Eriksson Ek scoring two goals last night was absolutely massive for me. I talked about how Eriksson Ek went goalless in the loss to the Golden Knights last year, and he desperately needed to produce offensively in these playoffs. With two pretty similar goals on the power play, he did just that.

The top guys were electric last night, with Mats Zuccarello also recording three assists. I’m also waiting for the defensemen to chip in offensively pretty soon because they were also fantastic.

I would also like to point out that while he didn’t record a point, Yakov Trenin recorded 13 hits. I said before the series he needed to be a physical presence, and he did just that last night.

Defense Core Looking Stellar

Speaking of the defense core, I need to give them their flowers for this performance. Quinn Hughes ended up playing, despite battling an illness, and he looked great, as he normally does.

The real person I wanted to talk about was Hughes’ partner, Brock Faber. To me, Faber was the best player on the ice all night. He was only able to record one assist, but he did so much at an elite level that didn’t show on the scoresheet. He was fantastic at generating opportunities and moving the puck through the neutral zone.

The rest of the defensemen were great, too. Jared Spurgeon had four hits and a great shot block on the penalty kill.

I thought they did a great job limiting the Stars’ chances off the rush, which is a team effort, but the defensemen have a big role in that. It felt like they insulated the rookie goalie Jesper Wallstedt well, and while he looked good, he didn’t have to do too much.

They also took it to the Stars, progressing the puck quickly, and to me, it looked like the Stars really struggled to deal with the pace the Wild played with.

Special Teams Come Up Huge

Special teams are always massive in the playoffs, and the Wild capitalized on their chances last night. They went 2-4 on the power play and scored a goal shortly after a penalty ended. The Stars need to make some adjustments, but I don’t know how they will handle this power play.

Hughes is so good as the power-play quarterback, and having the threats of Kaprizov, Boldy, the passing ability of Zuccarello, and the size of Eriksson Ek in front is unfair.

They did a great job working the puck into the slot to Eriksson Ek, which is where he got his two goals.

They did allow a goal on the penalty kill, but overall, I didn’t think they looked all that bad. I would hope Wallstedt gets you a stop in that situation next time, considering where Jason Robertson was on the ice, but I don’t think there are any real big concerns there.

Last night’s win was huge, but the Wild need to keep this momentum going. The Stars have a reputation for losing Game 1s.