Wild ejected out of Dallas into must-win situation
Marcus Foligno was ejected for a knee-to-knee hit just two minutes into the game and the Minnesota Wild floundered the rest of the way in a 4-0 loss to the Dallas Stars Tuesday night.
The loss puts Minnesota on the brink of elimination, trailing the Stars 3-2 in the best-of-seven series. Game 6, is Friday night. The Wild have not advanced past the first round of the playoffs since 2015, and if they don't win Friday the drought will continue. If they do win, Game 7 will be back in Dallas on Sunday.
Foligno went knee-to-knee with Radek Faksa just 2:14 into the first period. The officials reviewed the hit and determined it was a five-minute major and a game misconduct.
Marcus Foligno received a five minute major for this knee-on-knee hit on Radek Faksa#mnwild | #TexasHockey pic.twitter.com/Nz5O7Mydir
— Hockey Daily 365 l NHL Highlights & News (@HockeyDaily365) April 26, 2023
On the ensuing five-minute power play, the Stars waited just eight seconds until Tyler Seguin gave Dallas a 1-0 lead. Seguin leads Dallas with four goals, all of them on the power play, this series.
The Wild killed the rest of the major only to have Jake Middleton get called for cross-checking, putting the Stars back on the power play where they again torched Minnesota, this time with Jason Robertson scoring just 17 seconds into the man advantage.
Dallas was 2-for-6 on the power play and they now have seven goals with the man advantage in the series.
With fresh legs entering the second period, Dallas waited just 79 seconds before Mason Marchment beat Wild goalie Filip Gustavsson for a 3-0 lead.
That was more than enough for Jake Oettinger, the Minnesota native who pitched a shutout with 27 saves.
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.