{"id":625559,"date":"2026-04-23T11:02:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T11:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/625559\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T11:02:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T11:02:08","slug":"wyatt-johnstons-double-ot-deflection-gives-dallas-stars-win-over-minnesota-wild-in-game-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/625559\/","title":{"rendered":"Wyatt Johnston’s double-OT deflection gives Dallas Stars win over Minnesota Wild in Game 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) \u2014 Wyatt Johnston<\/a> scored on a power-play deflection at 12:10 of the second overtime to give the Dallas Stars<\/a> a 4-3 victory over the Minnesota Wild<\/a> early Thursday for a 2-1 lead in the first-round series.<\/p>\n

Matt Duchene<\/a> tied it for Dallas on a power play midway through the third period, seconds after his backcheck on Matt Boldy<\/a> averted a short-handed goal that would\u2019ve put Minnesota up by two.<\/p>\n

After the Wild failed to convert two overtime power plays, finishing 1 for 7 with the man advantage, the Stars took advantage of their opportunity after Danila Yurov<\/a>\u2019s delay-of-game penalty. Miro Heiskanen<\/a>‘s shot was knocked in by Johnston for his third goal in three games \u2014 and his sixth winning goal in four career postseasons. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of a little blurry, but just trying to get to the net and just trying to get my stick on the puck,\u201d said Johnston, who had a career-high 45 goals during the regular season.<\/p>\n

The game ended at 12:54 a.m.<\/p>\n

Radek Faksa<\/a> had a close-range chance in the second overtime he poked behind Wild goalie Jesper Wallstedt<\/a>, but the puck skidded straight across the crease.<\/p>\n

Wallstedt polished off the first Stars’ power play by snapping his glove around Mikko Rantanen<\/a>\u2019s shot and smothering Esa Lindell<\/a>\u2019s bad-angle attempt. Johnston then spoiled a brilliant 32-save performance by Wallstedt with his deflection.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe definitely played well enough to win,” Wallstedt said. “It\u2019s small margins. It\u2019s a \u2018D\u2019 shot that double tips and hits twice and goes over my shoulder. Yeah, it\u2019s bounces, but that\u2019s what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seconds after the audible thump from Stars goalie Jake Oettinger<\/a>\u2019s blocker save on Brock Faber<\/a>\u2019s slap shot, the Wild had another prime opportunity to win it in the first overtime when Hughes drew a tripping penalty on Sam Steel<\/a>. But even with Faksa playing most of that penalty kill without a stick, the Wild failed to generate much pressure. Jamie Benn<\/a>\u2019s holding penalty on Nick Foligno<\/a> gave them another try to crack Oettinger, who finished with 28 saves.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had my head down, looking out of one eye, just like, \u2019Good Lord, get through this,’\u201d Duchene said.<\/p>\n

The Wild killed four penalties between Rantanen\u2019s power play tip-in just 1:25 into the game and Duchene\u2019s crowd-quieting snap shot that slipped between defenseman Jared Spurgeon<\/a> and the near post. That included 40 seconds of a 5-on-3 after Boldy\u2019s delay-of-game penalty late in the second period.<\/p>\n

As soon as he left the box, Spurgeon saw an opening to start a rush that Michael McCarron<\/a> finished with his first goal in the NHL playoffs to give the Wild a 3-2 lead. <\/p>\n

Jason Robertson<\/a> scored after a slick stretch pass by Duchene to put the Stars up 2-0 in the first period.<\/p>\n

Marcus Johansson<\/a> scored on a power play to start the rally less than five minutes later, and Joel Eriksson Ek<\/a> had the tying goal in the second after a brilliant setup by Boldy. The U.S. Olympian, who had a career-high 42 goals during the regular season, weaved through four Stars skaters and drew a crowd behind the net before zipping the puck back into the slot for Eriksson Ek to knock in. <\/p>\n

Entering these playoffs, the winner of Game 3 after a split of the first two games in a best-of-seven went on to win the series nearly two-thirds of the time (245 of 369) in NHL history. <\/p>\n

The Wild, who have not advanced in the postseason since 2015, fell on the flip side of that ratio in each of their last three appearances. They won Game 3 to go up 2-1 on Vegas last year, on Dallas in 2023 and on St. Louis in 2022, before being eliminated with three straight losses every time.<\/p>\n

This was the third time in Wild history they reached double overtime, including a 3-2 win at Dallas in Game 1 of their first-round series with the Stars in 2023.<\/p>\n

The Wild, who have a 4-14 series record in their underwhelming playoff history, have lost 17 of their last 23 postseason home games.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether we won tonight or lost tonight, this series isn\u2019t over,\u201d Hughes said. \u201cIt\u2019s a really good hockey game. We had our looks. They had their looks. Just leave it at that.\u201d <\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NHL playoffs: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/stanley-cup and https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nhl<\/p>\n

Dave Campbell<\/a>, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) \u2014 Wyatt Johnston scored on a power-play deflection at 12:10 of the second overtime…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":625560,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-625559","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=625559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}