Dallas scores quick, often on Marc-Andre Fleury to even series 1-1 with Minnesota Wild

DALLAS — The Wild didn’t look like they did in Game 1.

They didn’t play the same way, either.

After prevailing in double overtime by sticking to their stingy structure, the Wild were the opposite of buttoned-up on Wednesday in a 7-3 dismantling by the Stars at American Airlines Center that evened the best-of-seven series at 1-1.

Game 3 is Friday at Xcel Energy Center.

“It’s pretty simple for us,” coach Dean Evason said. “If we play like we did tonight, that style of game and giving up odd-man rushes and turning pucks over, we’re not going to win.”

Dallas’ Roope Hintz scored a hat trick during a four-point effort and goaltender Jake Oettinger denied 23 shots from the Wild, who surrendered the most goals ever in a playoff game while straying from the no-nonsense hockey that got them here and guided them to a 3-2 double-overtime victory to open the first-round matchup.

Instead, they got sidetracked, getting swept up by the Stars’ preference, which is speed and sudden transitions. And they play that game better than the Wild.

“Embarrassing on my part giving up seven goals like that in the playoffs,” said goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, who learned on Tuesday he’d be starting Game 2 after Filip Gustavsson won Game 1. “I want to come in and give a chance to my team to stay in the game and win, and that’s not what I did. I gave up too many goals.

“I think we had to open up to try to come back in the game, and we gave up more chances. But bottom line, I didn’t make any good key saves in the game.”

A Wild miscue led to the Stars’ first goal on their first shot, Hintz scooping up a Kirill Kaprizov turnover to skate in for a breakaway that he sent top-shelf on Fleury for a shorthanded tally only 4 minutes, 14 seconds into the first period.

“Uncharacteristic, completely different game as far as defensively giving up odd-man rushes and not doing the right things, not protecting the puck,” Evason said. “They played well, but we fed into it a bit, too.”

Fleury’s addition was one of two changes by the Wild, who whiffed on going up 2-0 for the first time in franchise history.

The veteran netminder (24 stops) took over for Gustavsson, who racked up a playoff franchise record 51 saves in Game 1, and the Wild also inserted Oskar Sundqvist into their lineup for an injured Ryan Hartman.

“It’s what we do, right?” Evason said of the decision to start Fleury over Gustavsson. “We’ve done it all year. The game, nothing was on Flower tonight. It was all on us.”

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During a double-minor penalty against Jake Middleton for high-sticking, Tyler Seguin tipped in Dallas’ second goal at 11:20.

Sundqvist, who was back in action for the first time since suffering a lower-body injury on April 6 and won a Stanley Cup with St. Louis in 2019, cut that deficit in half with 3:49 to go in the first when Gus Nyquist’s throw toward the net bounced off Sundqvist’s right skate and behind Oettinger.

But another power play goal by the Stars, this time a shot off the rush by captain Jamie Benn only 4:07 into the second period, reinstated Dallas’ two-goal cushion.

Overall, the Stars went 3-for-6 on the power play and of their five goals up to that point in the series, none came at even strength: Four arrived on the power play and the other was Hintz’s shorthanded sequence.

This 5-on-5 drought, however, didn’t last much longer.

Just 1:27 after Benn converted, Evgenii Dadonov backhanded in the rebound off an impressive Fleury save during a 3-on-2 rush by the Stars.

“We gave them too many odd-man rushes and chances, and we don’t help Flower out at all,” Mats Zuccarello said. “That’s what you get against good teams. So, we didn’t play up to our standards. None of us.”

That breakdown in Wild coverage would get more costly.

The Wild scored twice in 11 seconds, a playoff record, to scale Dallas’ advantage back to a goal.

BOXSCORE: Dallas 7, Wild 3

First, Marcus Johansson buried a Matt Boldy rebound on the power play (1-for-5) at 11:54 before Nyquist set up Frederick Gaudreau for a breakaway that he lifted by Oettinger at 12:05 on the very next shift.

But the Wild squandered that momentum and in a hurry.

Dadonov deflected in a Miro Heiskanen (four assists) point shot with 3:52 to go in the second period and just 48 seconds later, Hintz picked up a Wild turnover for another breakaway that he again finished.

“We score two quick goals and I should have kept the score there to keep us in the game,” Fleury said, “and it went the other way.”

Hintz, who also had an assist, completed the hat trick on the power play with 7:44 remaining in the third.

As the pushing and shoving intensified later in the period, Kaprizov, Marcus Foligno, Ryan Reaves, Brandon Duhaime and the Stars’ Max Domi were ejected – the tension bubbling in a battle that’s now back to Square 1.

“We prepared for a long series, and we’re happy to go home with one apiece,” Sundqvist said. “We were hoping for two. We’ll take one.”

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