At least the better team (last night) won. The Stars put on a dominant display of offensive control last night in handing the Wild it's first regulation loss of the season. The Stars also broke through and scored on the power play for the first time against Minnesota this season. Backstrom gave up the first shot he saw (13 seconds into the game) on a broken play, and the rout was on in the first period (the Stars outscored the Wild 3-1.) Harding replaced Nik for his first minutes of the regular season and played fine, yielding only the one goal.
Strangely, the Wild seemed to be in the game trailing 3-1 until (Virginia, MN native) Matt Niskanen's power play goal at the 12:06 mark of the second. But that really seemed to deflate the Wild in all but their own power play situations.
I proposed that Lemaire might not have minded that scenario, in sort of a Machiavellian "I don't want their heads to get too big here, and maybe now they'll be nice and humble against my old team (Montreal) Thursday night..." kind of way.
Not too much to take from this one.
Chicken Little says: You won't win if you don't skate - and the Wild did neither.
Pollyanna says: Er, no 3rd period collapse??
Bottom line: They weren't going to go 81-0-1. It's a loss. Move on.
Stud: Riiiigggghhhttt....I guess Harding? He wasn't too bad...
Dud: Zidlicky was on for 3 Dallas goals and missed the net a few more times on his shots from the point.
NiNY
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