First Shift \ud83c\udfd2<\/p>\n
This has been a challenging season for the Stars\u2019 penalty kill.<\/p>\n
The team under assistant coach Alain Nasreddine for the previous three seasons ranked second in the NHL at 82.5 percent. This season, still under Nasreddine with a new coaching staff, it has slipped to 13th. What\u2019s worse, it seems to have its hands full with the Minnesota Wild right now.<\/p>\n
Dallas allowed Minnesota to go 2-for-4 on the power play in a Game 1 that the Wild won 6-1 on Saturday. That followed a three-goal performance by the Wild on the man advantage a few weeks earlier against the Stars.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to be better,\u201d said Stars coach Glen Gulutzan.<\/p>\n
Part of the reason the Stars are down this year is also part of the reason they are so encouraged. Dallas started the year 28th in the league at 70.4 percent through the first month. Since then, they are third best at 82.4 percent.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe always came back during the season,\u201d said penalty killer Radek Faksa<\/a>. \u201cWe had a tough start on the PK. The first 10 games of the season, we were in last place, and then we came back.\u201d<\/p>\n The unit has seen small changes from last season, but it has remained mostly intact. Esa Lindell<\/a> still leads the way and the forward group still gets minutes from Oskar B\u00e4ck<\/a>, Colin Blackwell<\/a> and Sam Steel<\/a>. New faces this year include Faksa, who was with St. Louis last season, and Justin Hryckowian<\/a>, who moved up from the minors. Cody Ceci is gone on defense and Wyatt Johnston<\/a> has seen his minutes diminish so he can concentrate on the power play, but a lot of the pieces are the same.<\/p>\n \u201cWe talk a lot and we take a lot of pride in it,\u201d said Lindell, who is among the NHL leaders in shorthanded time on ice in his career. \u201cIt\u2019s a big part of the game, it can win a lot of games.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s why it\u2019s so important to get it together in this series. Minnesota ranks third in power play success rate at 25.2 percent. Quinn Hughes ranks third in power play assists at 32 this season and Kirill Kaprizov ranks fourth in power play goals at 19. They are a dangerous team, and deep. Joel Eriksson Ek had two power play goals in Game 1.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know what the mistakes are,\u201d Faksa said. \u201cWe need to learn from that.\u201d<\/p>\n On both goals, the Stars got spread out and Minnesota was able to find seams in the penalty kill. Gulutzan said the team will analyze and improve.<\/p>\n \u201cJust don\u2019t let that puck come from that low to high area,\u201d he said. \u201cThe spread beat us twice. That\u2019s something we have to make sure we adjust to. When the puck goes below the goal line, you don\u2019t want it to come out into the slot. If you muddle up the slot, you can get them stalled.\u201d<\/p>\n