Minnesota Wild Gameday Playoff Preview: Game 6 vs. the Stars – The Hockey Writers – Minnesota Wild

The Minnesota Wild came up big in Game 5 on the road as they took down the Dallas Stars 4-2 on Tuesday night, Apr. 28, and took a 3-2 series lead. Everyone in their lineup stepped up, and it made a difference, as well as having two of their injured return in Mats Zuccarello and Yakov Trenin, but they added Jonas Brodin to the injured list, as he left the game after blocking a shot. The non-injury adjustment will be Nico Sturm in and Bobby Brink out.

The Wild have proven they are a different team than in the past, and it’s been key to them getting ahead in this series. They’ve had different players step up, their star players have done what’s expected, and their goaltending has stood out. They can win Game 6 and secure the series, but they have to make sure to stick to their game. In this article, we’ll look at a few storylines to follow ahead of Game 6, starting with the chance they have.  

Wild Have Huge Chance

For those outside the Wild fanbase that’ve seen teams make it past the first round, it’s hard to understand the importance of winning not only Game 6 but closing out the series and having the chance to do so on home ice. The Wild have been strong enough to make it into the postseason over the years, but they’ve had a rough time making it out of the first round. 

The running joke for what feels like the last decade or longer is the Wild can make the postseason, but they’ll be out in the first round. It almost seemed like the team even felt that over the years as well, and although they tried to get through, they were their own enemy with penalty issues, faceoff losses, and so on. However, this season they’ve shown they are a different team, and of course, they want to win, but it feels like this season they know they can and believe it too. 

“Yeah, we’re all extremely excited about having a chance to win on home ice this evening, we’re just gonna look to get better, like we have all first five games of this series and do it again tonight,” Jake Middleton said to the media after morning skate about the chance to win the series at home, and continued on how hard it can be to end a team’s season, “Yeah we’re kind of fortunate, not a single game in this series has been easy so we know what to expect coming into tonight and we’re just trying to do the same thing we’ve been doing.” 

“Yeah the hardest thing to do in sports is to end a team’s season that’s desperate so I think that’s the biggest mindset going into tonight,” Nico Sturm said to the media after morning skate about how challenging it can be to end a team’s season and continued on the chance to win the series, “Yeah, I think we don’t try to let the moment get too big and we know what the game means, we know what it means to the fans, we’re aware of that but if we focus on all those things on the outside it almost kind of takes away from focusing on what you need to do when you’re on the ice so and I think the group’s been very professional, very businesslike, that’s at least the impression that I’ve gotten over the last couple weeks especially.” 

Wild Must Remain Disciplined 

For those who’ve watched the Wild, especially in the last five years or so, it’s easy to see why they haven’t made it out of the first round, even when it appeared they had the talent to do so. They would take undisciplined penalties, which led to power plays for the opposition that they would almost always score on, and that would lead to more frustration.

If it wasn’t their special teams, it was their inability to win faceoffs and play their style of game. They’d try to play their opponents’ style, and oftentimes it would come back to bite them. This postseason so far, they’ve done a great job of focusing on their game and keeping all the noise out. They’ve had their fair share of slip-ups, but overall, they’ve let the Stars beat themselves at their own game. Ryan Hartman, especially, has done a great job of this, as well as Marcus Foligno. 

Things got a little dicey in Game 2, and it looked like the Wild were going to fall back into bad habits, but they took care of it quickly and have done so since. The Stars have pushed the Wild’s buttons hard, knowing they’ve fallen for it in the past, but so far, so good for the Wild. 

“Yeah, you gotta feed off it, right? Our fans are, they’re unbelievable, and we’re just going to feed off of whatever they give us. We’re going to use it to our advantage,” said Jake Middleton to the media after morning skate about how loud and excited the fanbase will be.

Wild Need Their Stars

The Wild have needed production from their stars all series, but in Game 6, when they have one of the biggest chances they’ve had over the seasons, they’ll really need Matt Boldy, Kirill Kaprizov, Mats Zuccarello, Joel Eriksson Ek, Brock Faber, and Quinn Hughes, plus Jesper Wallstedt, to find yet another level to their game. 

It’s great they have Zuccarello and Yakov Trenin back in the lineup after missing several games; they were both factors in their Game 5 win, but now they’re without Jonas Brodin. He left Game 5 early after blocking a shot, and it was announced during the Wild’s morning skate that he will not play in Game 6. They were able to close out the win without him for over half of Game 5, and now they’ll have to do it again in Game 6. Jeff Petry will be in the lineup, and he’ll skate alongside Zach Bogosian, with the other pairs being Hughes and Faber, and then Jared Spurgeon and Jake Middleton. 

“Yeah, Jimmy (Brodin), he’s tough to replace, he’s just an awesome player, awesome teammate but as we’ve kind of done throughout the years here, it’s next man up mentality and we’re all going to step up our game,” Middleton said after morning skate about Brodin being out and continued on Petry coming in, “Yeah no he’s been around the block a time or two, probably a 1,000 times or so right? So, he knows what he’s doing, and he’s going to fit in seamlessly.”

It’ll be interesting to see how the team steps up and if they can find a way to close out the series for the first time in 11 years. It’s safe to say that Grand Casino Arena will be the loudest it has been all season, and hopefully the Wild can use that to their advantage without getting themselves into trouble. They have to remember their discipline, and if they can do that, they can come out with the win and close out the series.