Minnesota Wild players celebrate after their team’s win over the Dallas Stars during overtime of Game 4 in the first round of the NHL Stanley Cup hockey playoffs Saturday, April 25, 2026, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Matt Krohn)
Matt Krohn/AP
ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Stars are starting to prove Marcus Foligno right.
After Game 2 of the first-round series, the Wild forward said the Stars “can’t hang” with the Wild 5-on-5.
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At the time, when Dallas had just evened the series at 1-1, the Stars shrugged off the comment. Head coach Glen Gulutzan said Foligno was just being “emotional or whatever.”
But two games later with the series now tied 2-2 as it heads back to Dallas for Game 5, there may have been more merit to Foligno’s comments than the Stars would like to admit.
Dallas was 5:20 away from taking a 3-1 lead in the series Saturday night and setting up a chance to clinch on home ice Tuesday. Instead, Foligno grinded out a gritty late goal to tie the score before his teammate, Matt Boldy, deflected in a shot by Jared Spurgeon in the final minute of the overtime period to steal the win.
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All three of Minnesota’s goals Saturday came at even strength. None of Dallas’ did.
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The Stars scored twice on the power play, going a perfect 2-for-2. Jason Robertson scored off a rebound in the first period, and Miro Heiskanen’s shot from the blue line found the net in the second.
It was nearly enough for Dallas to sweep at Grand Casino Arena. But after the Heiskanen goal, the Wild weren’t called for another penalty all game. Dallas couldn’t find an answer 5-on-5.
“You look at their goals, and they just kind of got sticks on pucks in just kind of the same way we couldn’t,” Gulutzan said. “We hit a post there on the wraparound. We just couldn’t get any puck luck. We’re just gonna have to start to finish off some, get some sticks on some of those pucks.”
But it’s hard to call it bad puck luck when it’s a trend that has now carried on for four games.
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The Wild are outscoring the Stars 11-3 at even strength. They outscored them 5-1 at 5-on-5 in the last two games of the series.
Luckily for the Stars, the series remains even because their power play has been lights out, and Minnesota’s has struggled mightily.
The Stars have scored eight of their 11 goals this series on the man advantage. Minnesota has scored just three of its 14 and has gone 0 for its last 10 power plays, including 0 for 4 Saturday.
But as the Stars learned Saturday, they can’t rely on Minnesota taking penalties to win games. Officials likely won’t want to dictate a series as tight as this one as it nears its end and will be more inclined to let the players play.
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The Wild, who took several emotional penalties early in the series, are also going to be more careful as the games get more important. They took just two penalties Saturday after averaging 7.3 per game in the first three games of the series.
Even with the numbers not in their favor, the Stars weren’t too concerned about their 5-on-5 play after Saturday’s game.
“I think we played well 5-on-5, just didn’t score,” Heiskanen said. “Keep playing the same way, goals will come at some point. I think it’s fine.”
According to Natural Stat Trick, the Stars and Wild had an even 13 high-danger chances at 5-on-5. The Wild just managed to finish theirs.
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“At times, we were dominating 5-on-5, so I’m not worried about generating and stuff like that,” forward Mikko Rantanen added. “There was definitely times where we were going to take a two-or-three-goal lead if we bury every chance.”
But Minnesota is managing to get to the net better than Dallas is at even strength. The Stars are having that success on the power play, as evidenced by Robertson’s rebound goal in the first period.
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When asked where the series will be decided, Gulutzan said the blue paint will be the difference.
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The Stars will need to find a way to win that battle in all situations to win the series, not just when they have an extra man on the ice.
“It’s almost like the blue paint wars,” Gulutzan said. “If you can get in there and find some pucks and get some sticks on things and win some battles when it’s that contested, it’s really hand-to-hand combat in the blue paint on both sides.”