ST. PAUL, Minn. \u2014 The Minnesota Wild\u2019s special teams failed them once again, but the team\u2019s season has been resuscitated by its rugged fourth line and overtime heroics from star forward Matt Boldy.<\/p>\n
With the Wild down in the third period on Saturday \u2014 5:20 away from a 3-1 first-round series deficit to the Dallas Stars \u2014 Marcus Foligno went over the top of goalie Jake Oettinger from the side of the net and backhanded in his first goal of the postseason, which eventually forced overtime.<\/p>\n
Then, with 28.9 seconds left in OT, Boldy scored to lift the Wild to a 3-2 Game 4 victory, evening the series, with Game 5 in Dallas on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what Bolds does,\u201d coach John Hynes said. \u201cHe\u2019s a tenacious competitor. The thing I liked about him, it\u2019s a microcosm of the team. You just keep playing. He just continues to do the right things. He continues to play. He continues to push. Plays through whatever the circumstances are and got a huge goal for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Boldy, who not long before had a goal overturned for kicking the puck in past Oettinger, went to the net alone while Tyler Myers was preoccupied mugging Joel Eriksson Ek out of the corner. Boldy deflected a shot from captain Jared Spurgeon past Oettinger for his first career playoff OT goal.<\/p>\n
\u201cBolds, Ekky and Kirill did a great job in the corner to win a battle,\u201d Spurgeon said of Boldy, Eriksson Ek and Kirill Kaprizov. \u201cIt was Bolds and Ekky, two big bodies that usually get a stick on it, so just tried to throw it there and obviously Bolds made a great play.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw him sort of beat his guy out of the corner. A rangy guy, he usually tips pucks in practice all the time, so just give him a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n
The last two goals saved all focus being heaped upon the Wild\u2019s special teams. One home game after the Wild gave up three power-play goals and didn\u2019t score on their last six power plays, the Wild went 0-for-4 on the power play and 0-for-2 on the penalty kill.<\/p>\n
Jason Robertson and Miro Heiskanen scored power-play goals for the Stars, who have scored eight of their 11 goals in the series on the power play, and Oettinger made 40 saves in the defeat. Jesper Wallstedt made 43 saves for the Wild, including 16 in the second period.<\/p>\n
Brock Faber also scored for the Wild, becoming the first defenseman in franchise history to score three goals in a playoff series.<\/p>\n
Minnesota is now 7-17 at home in the playoffs since an opening-round win against the St. Louis Blues in 2015.<\/p>\n
When a team wins Game 4 to tie a best-of-seven series, it goes on to win the series 49.8 percent of the time (150 of 301). When the win comes at home, a team wins 43.5 percent of the time (77 of 177).<\/p>\n
Foligno comes through<\/p>\n
For most of this series, Marcus Foligno has been pretty quiet.<\/p>\n
Well, other than that whole \u201cthey can\u2019t hang with us\u201d at five-on-five quote after Game 2 and almost decapitating Thomas Harley earlier in that game.<\/p>\n
But Foligno came through in a big way Saturday. His game-tying goal with around six minutes left might have saved the Wild\u2019s season. Foligno, who threw his body around all game, found himself near the crease on a Wild possession and was in the right spot as Nico Sturm threw a puck at the net. Foligno knocked the puck loose from Oettinger and then reached over with his stick to swipe in the rebound in the crease.<\/p>\n
\u201cTry moving that body in front of the net,\u201d Sturm said. \u201cLike, good luck.\u201d<\/p>\n
Foligno, who lost his stick in the scramble, made a huge jump into the boards and got mobbed by teammates. The Wild had been struggling offensively, with that just their fourth even-strength goal since Game 1.<\/p>\n
Wild power play dry, penalty kill brutal<\/p>\n
After Ryan Hartman was called for goalie interference leading to Robertson\u2019s power-play goal to open the game, Minnesota drew three consecutive power plays to end the first period.<\/p>\n
Like the previous two games, the Wild failed remarkably. The first two power plays, the only shot they generated was a 49-foot muffin by Hartman at the tail end of the second power play. The third, they pressured hard but only recorded two shots, and Quinn Hughes didn\u2019t pull the trigger fast enough near the final horn after Kaprizov set him up with an open net.<\/p>\n
In the second, the Wild drew a fourth in a row. This time, the right-shot Faber replaced Hughes on the No. 1 unit, and guess what, not a single shot.<\/p>\n
The Wild\u2019s power play is 1-for-15 over the past three games, and the only goal has come from the second unit. That after they scored two power-play goals in Game 1 and finished the regular season third in the NHL.<\/p>\n
Conversely, the Stars went 2-for-2 and are now 8-for-19 in the series. At the end of a one-sided second period in which Dallas outshot Minnesota 17-4, Jamie Benn bonked himself on his own head with his own stick, Faber was called for high-sticking, and that\u2019s all the Stars needed to take a 2-1 lead on Heiskanen\u2019s rip.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019ll enjoy the win,\u201d Hynes said when asked about the special teams. \u201cGuys battled back hard. We\u2019ll reassess this game and get back at it (Sunday) and start preparing again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Robertson stays hot<\/p>\n
Robertson might not have the flash of Kaprizov or skating ability of Hughes or tipping skills of Johnston or hands of Rantanen, but there\u2019s a reason he\u2019s been the most effective forward in this series. He knows where the puck is going, and he knows what to do with it once it gets there.<\/p>\n
Robertson, as he so often does, particularly on the power play, was in perfect position to flip a Matt Duchene rebound past Wallstedt at 5:35 of the first period to give the Stars a 1-0 lead. The 26-year-old power forward now has scored in seven straight postseason games, dating back to the final three games of last year\u2019s Western Conference final. He has eight goals in those seven games, and he became the first player in Dallas Stars history to score in the first four games of a postseason (the second in franchise history, as Steve Payne did it for the Minnesota North Stars in 1981).<\/p>\n
Robertson almost got another, too, in a significant first-period sequence. He looked off Mavrik Bourque on a two-on-one, but his shot was gloved down by Wallstedt. Thirty seconds later, Faber\u2019s shot from the point ticked off Heiskanen\u2019s glove and past Oettinger, tying up the game 1-1.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe puck\u2019s just going in, right?\u201d Robertson said. \u201cI don\u2019t know. I\u2019m getting shots off, that\u2019s big. Trying to put myself in position to get shots off and hopefully it goes in.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Wall stands tall<\/p>\n