Stars defenseman Nils Lundkvist left Saturday’s game in the second period after being cut by Michael McCarron’s skate blade. Jerome Miron / Imagn Images
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Dallas Stars defenseman Nils Lundkvist left Saturday’s Game 4 against the Minnesota Wild in the second period after taking a skate blade across the face and didn’t return.
Coach Glen Gulutzan said after the game that Lundkvist suffered a “deep facial laceration. He didn’t know if he stayed in the building or went to the hospital.
Lundkvist tripped Minnesota’s Michael McCarron with about 6:45 left in the second period as McCarron chased a loose puck just outside the Dallas crease. As both players crashed to the ice, McCarron’s left skate cut across Lundkvist’s left cheek. Lundkvist got up, skated off the ice bleeding and immediately went down the tunnel and to the locker room.
Fortunately, it didn’t appear that the skate got his eye or his neck.
Lundkvist signed a two-year, $3.5 million contract extension last week, just days after he and his wife, Malin, welcomed their first child. It’s been a big year for the 2018 first-rounder, whose steady play filled the Stars’ perennial hole on the right side of the second defensive pairing, rendering their trade-deadline acquisition of Tyler Myers a luxury instead of a necessity.
The 25-year-old had two assists in the first three games of the series after posting three goals and eight assists in 52 regular-season games.
Apr 27, 2026
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