It took a little extra time, but the Wild got the two points it desperately needed in a 3-2 overtime victory over the division rival Dallas Stars on Sunday at Xcel Energy Center. Here are five rules recapping their latest win:

1. Marco Rossi finished a highlight-reel play in overtime for his 24th goal of the season.

Only 13 seconds into overtime, Matt Boldy was tripped up by Stars’ goal scorer Jason Roberston to put the Wild on a power play.

That gave the Wild a 4-on-3 advantage. Boldy and Mats Zuccarello cycled the puck beautifully, with Zuccarello’s shot tipped in on the back door by Rossi at 58 seconds of overtime.

“Try to be open, and Zuccy is going to find you,” said Rossi, who also recorded an assist in the game.

Boldy offered more on how the winner developed, calling it “an unbelievable play by Zuccy.”

“Great battle on the zone entry,” Boldy said. “They played that about as good as they possibly could. The best I’ve ever seen any 4-on-3 play it. Great battle won there and then to get set up. You give the puck to the best playmaker on the team, and he makes no mistake.”

The Wild’s top line accounted for all three goals. Yes, that’s the top line of Marcus Foligno and Boldy on the wings with Rossi at center.

“Today was a good start to a big week for us,” said John Hynes.

2. Matt Boldy whacks his way to a three-point game.

Dallas took a 1-0 lead early in the game on Robertson’s 34th goal of the season. The score remained the same at the second intermission. But the Wild talked afterward about how they played well, even if the results didn’t always show up on the scoreboard.

“We had a really good game,” Rossi said. “Even the first and second period was good. Maybe the puck bounces didn’t go our way. But we played the right way and obviously go out goals in that third period.”

That started with Boldy tying the game about three minutes into the third period when he whacked the puck into the net as he was falling to his knees in the slot. He got up and emphatically celebrated his team-leading 26th goal of the season.

“Just kind of a bouncing puck that found some free ice, and I just tried to hit it as hard as I could,” Boldy said. “Got lucky it went in.”

Less than two minutes later, Foligno punched in a goal in the crease to give the Wild a 2-1 lead five minutes into the third. Boldy had the second assist on the play, as he did on Rossi’s winner.

It’s the sixth game this season in which Boldy (26-41—67) has scored three-or-more points in a game.

“I thought mentally we were in this game right from the start,” Boldy said.

3. The Wild’s penalty kill did its job.

The penalty kill has taken its fair share of lumps and criticism this season. There was a point where skating down a man might as well have come with an automatic goal for the opposing team, and quickly. Teams won faceoffs in their offensive zones and scored within the first 10 seconds of power plays against the Wild.

By the numbers, the Wild’s penalty kill is still one of the worst. Its 72.2% (54 goals allowed on 194 attempts) mark coming into Sunday’s game ranked 31st in the NHL. That ranking is the same on home ice at 69.1% (25 goals on 81 attempts) before Sunday.

The PK came into play on its New York road trip Friday against the Islanders. The Wild trailed just 2-1 headed into the third period but allowed a goal on the kill for a two-goal margin.

But against Dallas, with a road power play ranked ninth in the NHL coming in, the Wild went 4-for-4. Hynes commented on the Wild’s urgency in the play on the kill, along with strong attention to detail.

“I thought we got saves at the right times from Gus,” Hynes said. “We were strong on our clears. That’s the recipe.”

First, the Wild needed to kill a Boldy boarding penalty only eight seconds into the game. They also killed off two tripping penalties in the third period with 9:05 left in regulation. The Wild’s killers didn’t allow much for the Stars with the man advantage.

“The guys are being smarter with shares and things like that in our zone with the penalty kill,” Foligno said. “So, I just feel like it’s a lot of confidence.”

Unfortunately, about 10 seconds after that first penalty in the third period expired, the Stars tied the game with a shot off Zach Bogosian’s leg. A tie game with 3:27 left in regulation, and this time Brock Faber went to the box for tripping. But the Wild killed that one off, too, and eventually skated into overtime after securing a point.

“The PK guys stepped up when they needed to,” said Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson. “Three minutes on the clock is not an easy task to do. We needed to have a kill, and everyone did it.”

4. Filip Gustavsson made 23 saves on the way to winning his 30th game of the season.

Gustavsson improved to 30-18-6 this season. He’s remained consistent with his game during this recent stretch the last month or so, as the Wild have relied on him heavily.

While the Wild have struggled to find success on home ice this season, Gustavsson is 17-11-1 at Xcel Energy Center in 2024-25. He’s also the fifth goaltender in franchise history to win 30 games in a season. Devan Dubnyk did it four times, Nicklas Backstrom twice, and Cam Talbot and Manny Fernandez also each won 30 games in a season.

“I wish I could play every game,” Gustavsson said. “It’s something I love to do, and I wish I can continue doing it.”

5. The victory broke a four-game winless streak for the Wild.

Since the start of March, the Wild stepped onto the ice Sunday with a 7-7-3 record, earning 17 points in 17 games as they fight to keep pace in the standings and hold onto a wild card spot.

But a rough road trip out east this past week left the Wild with an 0-2-2 stretch even since their inspired victory over the Washington Capitals on home ice March 27, a game known more for its finish when Alex Ovechkin – who made history by scoring his 895th career NHL goal Sunday – made sure his team shook hands with Wild goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury after the game.

From there, the Wild lost 5-2 to New Jersey, then in a shootout at the Devils’ home, followed by an overtime loss at the Rangers. A rough 3-1 loss at the Islanders on Friday generated some pointed and candid comments from the Wild locker room postgame.

But as Foligno said after Sunday’s game, the Wild needed to stop talking about what they need to do and just show up and play during this crucial time of year, which now has four games remaining in the regular season.

“We’ve just got to show up and play,” Foligno said. “Just sick of the meetings, sick of the motivational speeches. We know we have it in here. It’s just getting our head around it and doing it for a full 60.”

The Wild have 91 points in the second wild card spot in the Western Conference. St. Louis is just ahead with 93 points; the Blues can’t lose lately, having won 12 games in a row. Calgary is chasing the Wild with 85 points. The Wild play at home again Wednesday vs. San Jose.

“It’s been a grind, but we’re excited we’re in the driver’s seat still,” Foligno said. “Our fate’s in our hands.”

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Ryan Hartman and his fellow Wild forwards found the grip of Ryan Suter and the Dallas defense too much to overcome in the series. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

“This city deserves better than what we gave them,” Hartman said quietly as he sat in the Wild’s dressing room at Xcel Energy Center following the Wild’s 4-1 loss in game 6 that ended Minnesota’s season and sent rival Dallas to the next round.

For the home fans who remained in the building following the traditional post-series handshakes between the Stars and Wild that night – though they were far outnumbered by empty green seats at that point – their cheers and applause seemingly willed the Wild players back to center ice for one final salute to the State of Hockey faithful.

“The fans, they’ve shown up for us all year, and we failed them,” Hartman said. “There’s opportunities throughout this series where we could have not necessarily put the nail in the coffin, but we could have separated ourselves a little bit more, and we failed to capitalize on opportunities throughout the series.”

Unfortunately for the Wild, not capitalizing on opportunities is the all-too-familiar refrain for a team that hasn’t stepped on the ice for a second-round playoff game since getting swept away by the Chicago Blackhawks in 2015. The Wild’s last second-round playoff game victory came nearly nine years ago, with a 4-2 win in game four at home against the Blackhawks; the Wild lost the series in six games.

The similarities to last year’s first-round playoff exit for the Wild are clear. A two-games-to-one series lead before the divisional foe (St. Louis last year, Dallas this year) rattled off three consecutive victories to advance to the second round. A Minnesota penalty kill surrendering goals was something one could count one like they could of snow falling in April in Minnesota. The Wild allowed eight goals on the penalty kill last year to St. Louis and 9-for-22 this year to Dallas.

The Wild’s penalty kill actually went 2-for-2 in game six against the Stars, but that’s little consolation when the Wild still ended up on the losing end of the scoresheet. It was often touted in this series how much better the Wild were during 5-on-5 play.

In game one, both Stars goals were scored almost immediately on two power-play opportunities, for example. But unfortunately for the Wild, special teams was once again magnified in a negative light in the playoffs.

“Were they (Dallas) the best 5-on-5? I’m not so sure,” said Wild coach Dean Evason said after game six. “Our group was real good in that area. We had to be better on the power play. Obviously, our penalty kill wasn’t great. But if we could have scored on our power play and made them pay for some penalties like they made us, it might be a different series.”

Freddy Gaudreau and the Wild proved to be no match for the heroics of Lakeville’s Jake Oettinger in net for the Stars. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

Could have. Might be. Yet wasn’t meant to be.

With four losses in the six games, credit to Dallas where credit is due, of course. Its best players came through when needed, they seized offensive chances and crushed special teams, not to mention a winning series from Lakeville native Jake Oettinger in net.

But so much of the poor results for the Wild were self-inflicted wounds. Or in one case, a much-discussed goaltender change.

After the Wild fought through its longest playoff game in team history to get the double-overtime game-one win in Dallas, they responded in game two with the most lopsided contest in a 7-3 loss. Fans questioned the decision to stick with the tandem system in net and start veteran Marc-Andre Fleury after Filip Gustavsson’s amazing 51-save performance in game one.

Seemingly proving all the naysayers correct, Fleury had a rough night in goal. But his teammates in front of him certainly didn’t make his job any easier. The sloppy defense hung him out to dry, the penalty kill units were on the ice six times helping to allow three more goals. The Wild actually got within a goal after Marcus Johansson and Freddy Gaudreau goals 11 seconds apart. But the goals Fleury would like to have back came after, and the game ended with a 7-3 defeat.

In front of a rocking Xcel Energy Center for game three in a tied series, the Wild played their most complete game of the series. Zuccarello scored a pair of goals, briefly giving fans hope that his recent slide in his offensive play was in the rearview mirror (spoiler: it wasn’t). Foligno – who will be known in this series as either a player who got screwed on poor penalty calls or as a goon who was tossed from a game, depending on which fanbase you align with – was all over the ice playing a solid game and scored a power-play goal.

The Wild grabbed the series lead again with the possibility of taking a 3-1 lead in the next game. Something they’ve never done.

Game four turned out to be a preview of some of what was still to come in the series. The low-scoring affair started out with an odd-man rush for the Wild seconds into the game, but they couldn’t connect for a goal. Put that on repeat a few more times throughout the game as Oettinger turned in his best performance of the series.

This was the game that got away for the Wild, allowing two pesky goals on the penalty kill as the Stars evened the series 2-2 with a 3-2 victory. The Wild played well enough to win but just didn’t – all together now – capitalize on their chances. Meanwhile, the Stars were opportunistic.

In a pivotal game five, someone was going to take a 3-2 series lead. But in order to lead, a team first has to score. The Wild did not, taking a 4-0 loss back home for a must-win game six. With Kirill Kaprizov scoring only the team’s first goal of the series way back in game one, and Matt Boldy still scoreless, Evason said he had “no doubt” these players would show up for game six.

But Kaprizov, though visible and not without chances in the series, only had that lone goal to show for this playoff series. His performance was the opposite of thrilling. It’s a role reversal from last season when he scored seven goals and an assist in the series against the Blues.

Boldy, a forward who signed a seven-year, $49 million deal during the season and went through a stretch in March with multiple hat tricks where nearly every shot he took was a goal, recorded only two assists in the series. In 12 career playoff games this season and last, he has one goal and two assists to show for it.

Those are the two most glaring examples of where the Wild’s offense was lacking.

Miro Heiskanen (4), Tyler Seguin (91) and the Dallas Stars kept Kirill Kaprizov in check throughout the series. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

But the Wild still had a chance to force a game seven. They buzzed around the rink early in game six, and Hartman found himself at the goalmouth with a grade-A chance to take a 1-0 lead. Somehow in the scramble, the puck stayed out of the net. Seconds later, the Stars Roope Hintz went down and popped a goal for his fifth of the series on the first Dallas shot on goal.

“I put the puck from my backhand to my forehand and I mean, I’ve watched it 100 times in slow motion between periods and a rolling puck as soon as I go to push it into the net it bounces over my blade and their defenseman whacks it off their goalie’s foot and then it goes and hits the post,” Hartman said. “And they [expletive] score right after.”

Wyatt Johnston made it 2-0 in the second period on a bang-bang play getting a puck in the slot. And there isn’t more of a series dagger than the goal Mason Marchment scored with less then a second left on the clock in the second period, making it 3-0 on a breakaway after the Wild had another scoring chance.

In the third period, as the math was done to see just how long the shutout streak was for Oettinger, Gaudreau at least gave the fans something to cheer about (a twist from booing both the team’s penalty kill and power play) when he scored at the 12:53 mark to get within 3-1 before a late empty netter from Dallas had fans flooding the exit doors.

Reflecting on yet another failure to advance to the next round was still fresh for Wild players Friday night.

“It’s so frustrating,” said captain Jared Spurgeon. “We had spots in the series where we could have won games and put them away and we didn’t do that. That’s something we’ve got to focus on next year and years out. That when we get those opportunities, we do finish them. It’s just frustrating every year when it ends like this.”

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Tougher, more playoff-tested, everything that the Wild wasn’t last season when they flopped in a six-game opening-round loss to the Blues.

So what happened?

After an outstanding series against the Blues a year ago, Kirill Kaprizov has been neutralized by the Stars through five games, faring only slightly better than fellow 30+ goal scorer Matt Boldy. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

The Wild will enter Game 6 of their first-round series against Dallas looking very much like the team general manager Bill Guerin attempted to retool to avoid a repeat.

Just like a year ago, the Wild won Game 3 by a 5-1 score to take a one-game lead and then dropped the next two. The Blues closed out the Wild in St. Louis in Game 6. The Stars will attempt to do the same on Friday night at Xcel Energy Center.

There are many disturbing similarities in the series’. This includes the Wild giving up nine power-play goals to Dallas in five games, after surrendering eight in six games against St. Louis. That was an area the Wild vowed to improve on.

Winger Kevin Fiala, one of the Wild’s key offensive players in 2021-22, had no goals in six games after scoring 33 in the regular season. Winger Matt Boldy has played the Fiala-role this postseason, failing to score a goal through five games after having 31 in the regular season.

Star winger Kirill Kaprizov, who had seven goals in six games against the Blues, has only one this postseason and disappeared in Game 5. Yes, the Wild are playing without their top center, Joel Eriksson Ek, but many teams have injury issues this time of year. 

The best teams find a way to win. The others hit the golf course in April.

That gets us to the most important part of this discussion. Assuming the Wild doesn’t rally from two games down, the postseason postmortem on this team must include a long look at the common denominator in the two playoff ousters: Coach Dean Evason.

Evason was out coached by the Blues Craig Berube, leaving many to wonder if that again would be a problem. The Wild’s message was that everyone learned from that defeat and would benefit from the lessons. 

That hasn’t been true. The advantage goes to Stars coach Peter DeBoer, whose Vegas Golden Knights, with Marc-Andre Fleury in goal, beat Evason’s Wild in seven games in the opening round in 2021.

DeBoer seemed to get under Evason’s skin, and by extension his team’s, after the Stars evened the series in Game 2 with a far-too-easy 7-3 victory. “When you pre-scout them, Minnesota takes penalties,” DeBoer said of the Stars’ power-play success. “They’re the sixth-most penalized team in the league. We’re ready for that.”

Evason countered: “We felt that they had some bigger people go down pretty easy in that hockey game. We’ve talked about this before, and it’s a fine line, because we don’t dive.”

While there have been some questionable calls in the series, Dallas has only been given two more power plays than Minnesota. The Stars are an incredible 9-for-22 and have four power-play goals from Tyler Seguin; the Wild are a feeble 4-for-20.

Dallas captain Jamie Benn (14) and Tyler Seguin (91) celebrate Seguin’s power-play goal in the second period of Game 4 for a 1-0 Stars lead. It was the second of Seguin’s now four power-play goals through five games of the Stanley Cup first-round series which the Stars lead 3-2 over the Wild. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

It was noted throughout the season that Evason’s objection to almost every penalty against his team didn’t set the greatest tone. But he was grumbling again in his postgame press conference on Tuesday after his team completely fell apart following winger Marcus Foligno’s 5-minute kneeing penalty and game misconduct early in the first period. The Stars scored only 8 seconds after Foligno was sent to the dressing room.

Evason needed to calm the Wild, instead they fell apart. 

There have been other odd decisions. Last season, Evason was questioned for not switching from Fleury to Cam Talbot until Game 6, when the Wild found themselves trailing 3-2 in the series. This time, Evason made the right move by starting the more productive Filip Gustavsson in goal in Game 1. Gustavsson stole that game as the Wild escaped with a 3-2 victory in double overtime.

His reward was watching Fleury stop only 24 of 31 shots in Game 2. Evason had decided to stick with his goalie rotation as if this was a regular-season game in January, instead of going with the hot hand. There’s nothing wrong with playing both goalies in the playoffs, but you usually wait until one guy loses a game, or, in this case, doesn’t stop 50-plus shots.

Then there is the issue of Evason’s almost complete refusal to juggle lines during games, unless he’s forced to because of injury. Kaprizov’s goal came late in the first period of Game 1. Meanwhile, his linemate, Mats Zuccarello, has two goals and five points in the five games, but often has been ineffective. 

The chemistry that made Kaprizov and Zuccarello so effective together, hasn’t been present for much of this series. Splitting them up would seem like a good wake-up call for both and yet it hasn’t happened. Why not try Boldy on a line with Kaprizov, or promote Gustav Nyquist to a top six position among the forwards? 

Nyquist had four points in the first three games against Dallas, as the Wild took a 2-1 series lead. There’s more. The Wild acquired two-time Stanley Cup winner Oskar Sundqvist from Detroit at the trade deadline for a fourth-round pick but have played him in only one game against Dallas. He scored a goal.

Sundqvist had three goals and seven points in 15 games with Minnesota after being acquired and unless he’s injured it makes little sense not to work a 6-foot-3, 220-pound playoff veteran into the mix more often. Instead, Evason stuck with third-line center and frequent scratch Sam Steel on Tuesday.

We don’t know if more moves by Evason would have made a difference, but we do know that doing little to nothing this time of year isn’t an acceptable coaching tactic. Things won’t simply work themselves out because they did in November or December.

Lakeville’s Jake Oettinger is just the latest in a long line of goaltenders to stymie the Wild in the postseason. (MHM Photo / Jeff Wegge)

As noted in this space at the beginning of the series, Evason’s playoff track record doesn’t provide much confidence. He’s has lost his first three first-round series’ as the Wild’s coach, if you include the 2020 qualifying tournament; he went 1-12 and had four first-round exists in six seasons as coach of the Nashville Predator’s top minor league affiliate in Milwaukee; and only won two first-round series in six seasons in the Western Hockey League. Those two teams didn’t get past the second round.

Maybe Evason can rally the Wild from their no-show performance on Tuesday to a pair of wins in Games 6 and 7, the finale being in Dallas. Maybe Kaprizov and Boldy will find their missing scoring touch and put a few past Dallas’ red hot goalie, Jake Oettinger. It will help if the Wild can establish possession and take away Oettinger’s vision by causing chaos in front. 

That’s done with desire and grit, a word the Wild elected to use as their playoff slogan because it’s so essential to how they win games.

But if the Wild does bow out, looking as poor as they did in Games 2 and 5, this can’t be ignored. This isn’t a 1 vs. 8 matchup. This is a 2-3 matchup between the 108-point Stars and 103-point Wild. Guerin didn’t make deals at the deadline hoping they might help, he made them because he was confident that a tougher team would be built for a playoff run.

Getting run out of the building twice, including once in a pivotal Game 5, was never part of that plan.

(MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

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This spring marks 20 years since the Wild made their franchise-best playoff run to the Western Conference finals. Fans who watched that unexpected and remarkable journey have many great memories: Richard Park’s overtime goal in Game 6 of the first round against Colorado; Andrew Brunette’s OT goal the following night that eliminated the Avalanche; and the Wild rallying from down 3-1 against both the Avs and Canucks to win the first two series.

One of the biggest reasons for the Wild’s success was the man behind the bench. Jacques Lemaire, a part of eight Stanley Cup winning teams as a player with Montreal and a Cup winning coach with New Jersey in 1994-95, proved to be a marvelous tactician as he outcoached the inexperienced Tony Granato and the Canucks’ Marc Crawford before the Wild was swept in the conference finals by Anaheim.

Lemaire’s coaching, combined with his players’ work ethic, a commitment to playing within a certain structure, the presence of two quality goaltenders and star winger Marian Gaborik, made the improbable possible.

Sound familiar?

The NHL has opened up its game to be a far more exciting product than it was in 2003, but this Wild team has many of the same qualities. There might not be a lot of star talent up front but winger Kirill Kaprizov is among the league’s most dynamic players and there is no doubting the work ethic of those around him. There also is a structure to the system that was lacking last season. Filip Gustavsson and veteran Marc-Andre Fleury provide a solid 1-2 punch in goal, just as Manny Fernandez and Dwayne Roloson did 20 years ago.

The X-factor as the Wild gets set to start their opening round series at Dallas on Monday is coach Dean Evason.

Evason has done an excellent job in the regular season since taking over for Bruce Boudreau in February 2020. In three full seasons, Evason has guided the Wild to a 75-point and third-place finish in 2020-21 (a pandemic-impacted season was only 56 games); a 113-point and second-place finish in the Central Division in 2021-22; and a 103-point and third-place finish in the Central this season.

Former Wild coach Bruce Boudreau talks strategy with assistant coach Dean Evason in a Jan. 12, 2020 game vs. Vancouver at Xcel Energy Center. Evason would replace Boudreau 33 days later while Boudreau would eventually take over behind the Canucks’ bench. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

But that success has not carried into the playoffs for the Wild or Evason. Evason’s issues in the playoffs date far beyond his arrival in Minnesota. He was given a pass for how the 2020 season ended, considering it was halted in early March because of the pandemic and didn’t resume until the Wild took part in the playoff qualifying tournament that August in the Edmonton bubble. Minnesota won the opening game of the best-of-five series against Vancouver before dropping the next three.

The following season, the Wild lost in seven games in the opening round to the Vegas Golden Knights and last season went out in six games against the St. Louis Blues, despite having home-ice advantage. That series was concerning because while Blues coach Craig Berube was willing to make quick adjustments — including replacing goalie Ville Husso with Jordan Binnington with the Blues trailing 2-1 — Evason seemed intent on standing pat.

The Wild was on the brink of elimination by the time Evason decided to sit Fleury and start Cam Talbot in goal for Game 6. The Blues cruised to a 5-1 and outscored Minnesota 15-5 in the final three games. It would have been one thing if Talbot had been a backup all season, but he was the Wild’s primary starter before Fleury was acquired at the trade deadline and finished the regular season on a 13-0-3 run.

Minnesota goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury gloves a puck blasted off the stick of St. Louis Blues forward Vladimir Tarasenko, one of 32 for Fleury in the Wild’s 6-2 win over the Blues in Game 2 of their Stanley Cup playoff first-round series on May 4, 2022 at Xcel Energy Center. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

Evason’s failure to make changes was bewildering considering the urgency that comes in the playoffs and the necessity for a coach to make tough and sometimes unpopular decisions.

Wild general manager Bill Guerin, who welcomes tough decisions and always has high expectations, likely will be very interested to see how his coach handles this series. 

What will make this more interesting is Evason’s lack of postseason success as a head coach at any level.

He spent six seasons leading the Nashville Predators’ American Hockey League affiliate in Milwaukee and guided the Admirals to four playoff appearances. This resulted in a 1-12 record and four first-round exits. 

Evason’s time in junior hockey was only slightly more successful.

He spent six seasons in the Western Hockey League — coaching Kamloops, Vancouver and Calgary, where he was co-coach in 2004-05 — with his teams winning two first-round series and never getting past the second round.

The Wild, with or without Evason, have had about as much playoff success as their coach. Minnesota hasn’t advanced beyond the second round since Lemaire’s team overachieved in the franchise’s third season and the last time they won a first-round series was in 2015 with Mike Yeo behind the bench. The Wild have been in the playoffs in seven of the past eight seasons, if you include the qualifying round in 2020, but have gone 10-23 in losing in the opening round each time.

Wild GM Bill Guerin expresses his displeasure during Minnesota’s 5-2 loss to the Boston Bruins on March 18, 2023 at Xcel Energy Center (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

Despite likely being without top center Joel Eriksson Ek in this series because of a lower body injury, there is an expectation both internally and externally that it’s time for the Wild to end their playoff drought. This current stretch of first-round defeats began in 2016 with a 4-2 series loss to Dallas and now it can end with a victory over the franchise that was based in Minnesota before relocating 30 years ago.

For that to happen, Evason is going to have to get the best of Dallas coach Pete DeBoer, who was Vegas’ coach two years ago when the Golden Knights eliminated the Wild. Evason, like Lemaire, is going to have to push many of the right buttons and make quicker adjustments than he often does in the regular season. Line shuffling, goalie changes and sitting veterans he likes are part of the job description this time of year.

If Evason doesn’t do those things, Guerin will have to start considering whether he has the right guy coaching his team when it matters most.

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A pair of Norm Green “fans” walking the Met Center concourse. (Courtesy Vintage MN Hockey)

Friday will mark 30 years since North Stars owner Norm Green made it official that he would be relocating the franchise to Dallas. Broten, 33 at the time, was forced to leave the only hockey home he had known. One of the greatest American born players, Broten had played youth hockey in Roseau, became a star at the University of Minnesota, was on the 1980 U.S. Olympic team and then played 12-plus seasons for the North Stars.

Broten, fresh from helping the U.S. stun the Russians in Lake Placid, joined the North Stars in time to play a role in the team’s run to the 1981 Stanley Cup Finals and had nine goals and 22 points in 23 postseason games as the North Stars returned to the Finals in 1991 against Pittsburgh.

Two years later, the franchise was headed to Dallas. The Stars have been in Dallas (29 years) longer than they were in Minnesota (26 years). After losing in the Finals in each of their appearances when Broten was on the team, the Stars won the only Stanley Cup of their 55-year existence in 1999.

The void left by the move was filled in 2000 when the expansion Wild began play and many Minnesota hockey fans have only known that franchise. There is an IKEA store and parking lot where the Met Center once stood in Bloomington. Still, the North Stars departure remains one of the more remarkable relocation stories in professional sports. Minnesota — dubbed The State of Hockey by the Wild’s genius marketing department — lost its NHL team to a state known for its love of football.

(MHM Photo / Jonny Watkins)

The North Stars have not been forgotten. They are well represented most nights at the Wild’s home, the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. Jerseys and apparel from the team remain popular and the Wild have paid tribute to the North Stars color scheme with their Reverse Retro jerseys in recent years. Bitterness about the move, at least from those who remember the team, has been replaced by the many pleasant memories that were established long before owner Norm Green started to hear his name used in derogatory chants in the late winter and spring of ’93.

Broten, now 63, recalled that tumultuous time this week as the anniversary of the North Stars announced departure neared. The biggest takeaway from the conversation was how surprised Broten remains about what happened.

“There was a lot of noise when Norm Green took over that he was going to move the team,” said Broten, who still holds the franchise marks he set in 1981-82 for most goals (38), assists (60) and points by a rookie (98). “I think a lot of us just thought that it was kind of talk, but when word came down that it was official that the North Stars were moving the team to Dallas, it was crazy, it was bizarre. It was like, ‘Hockey in Dallas, leaving Minnesota?’

“Does that sound legit or stupid or what? But it became real when the moving vans came and picked up our furniture and we headed down 35 towards Dallas. I look back on it, 30 years went by pretty fast. But it was just spending 10, 11, 12 years in Minnesota, or whatever the heck it was, and then just uprooting the team and moving it out of what they now call ‘The State of Hockey’ … Minnesota has always been hockey for me. So moving out to Dallas didn’t make a whole hell of a lot of sense at that time. It was bizarre. Basically it was crazy.”

Norm Green peddling Met Center suites. (Courtesy Vintage MN Hockey)

There were many contributing factors in the decision. Green was sued for sexual harassment by a former North Stars employee that eventually was settled out of court. There also were issues involving attendance at Met Center (yes, that was a thing) and Green’s inability to work out a deal with the owners of the then-new Target Center to move the team downtown.

Green, a shopping mall developer from Calgary who bought the franchise in 1990, wanted major improvements at the Met Center and he wasn’t going to get them. The key thing was that Green was given NHL approval to move the franchise anywhere he wanted in 1992 as part of an agreement that he would not relocate the North Stars to a new arena in Anaheim, Calif. The reason being that the NHL wanted Disney to be able to put the expansion Mighty Ducks in that building.

In a piece he wrote for a Dallas magazine in 2010, Green said he had the deal done to move the Stars in January 1993. A year after losing to the Penguins in the NHL Finals, and Green hearing chants of “Norm, Norm, Norm,” as he walked the Met Center concourse, the North Stars lost in the opening round of the 1992 playoffs to Detroit in seven games. The North Stars appeared to be headed back to the playoffs the following season and had a 26-18-8 record by end of January 1993.

Young superstar Mike Modano was on his way to a 33-goal, 93-point season and the North Stars appeared to have a franchise player for years to come. That turned out to be the case, only it was Dallas who got to witness Modano’s development into a Hall of Fame player. A day before it became official that the North Stars would be leaving Minnesota, they beat the San Jose Sharks at Met Center to improve to 32-27-9. Minnesota played host to Vancouver the day after the news and beat the Canucks by a goal.

Moments before the final opening puck drop at Met Center (Courtesy Vintage MN Hockey)

But the North Stars’ season quickly came off the rails after that win. They lost eight of their next nine, mixing in a tie, before winning three in a row.

“It definitely caused some turmoil amongst the whole team,” said Broten, who had 12 goals and 33 points in 82 games that season. “You’ve got stuff in the paper and people are talking every day about, ‘OK, he’s going to move the team.’ It wasn’t a great situation for sure.”

It got worse as the North Stars ended its season with three consecutive losses to miss the playoffs. The penultimate game was the last one at Met Center, a 3-2 loss to Chicago, and the final game was a 5-3 loss on April 15, 1993 in Detroit. Ulf Dahlen scored the final goal for the North Stars.

If that evening felt strange, it was nothing compared to the atmosphere at Met Center as Minnesota’s two-goal rally in the third period fell short against the biggest rival in franchise history, the Blackhawks.

“That was pretty weird,” Broten said. “After the game we kind of saluted the crowd. A bunch of guys went back on the ice and raised their sticks or whatever. That’s about all I can remember from that. It was just a crazy time. I don’t know what to tell you. You kind of believed it and you kind of didn’t believe it. I had totally mixed emotions. I had never thought the team would move, or never thought they’d move to Dallas, or any other city, right? That last game at home was pretty emotional.”

Courtesy Vintage MN Hockey

Broten, a center, had a productive first season in Dallas, scoring 17 goals with 52 points in 79 games. He had only four assists in 17 games and was minus-8 the following season before he was traded to the New Jersey Devils for Cloquet native and fellow former Gopher Corey Millen.

That Devils team would go onto win the Stanley Cup — Broten had seven goals and 19 points in 20 postseason games — and Broten remained in New Jersey before being sent to the Los Angeles Kings during the 1996-97 season. Broten played in only 19 games for the Kings and was then claimed off waivers by the Stars. He retired after contributing eight goals and 15 points in 20 games with Dallas.

The North Stars had retired two numbers during their existence — Bill Masterton’s 19 and Bill Goldsworthy’s 8 — and Broten’s 7 became the first to be raised to the rafters with the franchise based in Dallas. Broten, however, would have much preferred that that 1998 ceremony could have occurred before a North Stars game in his home state.

Courtesy Vintage MN Hockey

“I’m a North Star through and through,” he said. “They drafted me, they gave me a shot to play in the NHL. I got a chance to play there for almost my entire career. Dallas was just a little diversion from the career. … But my whole time in Minnesota was great. Youth hockey was great, college hockey was awesome, the Olympic team (which was based in the Twin Cities) was great, the North Stars were awesome and to just kind of pull the rug out from underneath you and move to Dallas. Man, I wish I could have won a Cup (in Minnesota) but it didn’t work out.”

The final Minnesota North Stars team photo (Courtesy Vintage MN Hockey)

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“That’s the word we use most and that’s what it is,” Evason said in response to the word fragile being attached to his team. “… What we’ve done is praised our group all year for just staying the course and not panicking, but, human nature, we are a fragile group right now.”

If Evason’s words were meant to show that everything will be fine, it didn’t work. The tone in Nico Sturm’s voice reflected a player who is searching for answers, and alternate captain Matt Dumba, back from injury after missing 10 games, had just addressed his teammates in the hopes of finding the right words.

Let me offer one that comes to mind: Panic.

Kirill Kaprizov and his Minnesota Wild teammates are searching everywhere to find their game with their playoff hopes slipping away. (MH Photo / Rick Olson)

The fact Evason acknowledged his team is fragile creates plenty of questions about the Wild as a group. This collection was supposed to be different and played like it was different for an extended time this season. No more Zach Parise, no more Ryan Suter, and none of the others who too often seemed like they had excuses at the ready whenever the Wild hit one of these rough stretches.

General manager Bill Guerin paid big money to jettison Parise and Suter with the feeling that a remade roster would respond in a much different manner when things didn’t go well. Guerin and Evason had to like what they saw early as the Wild sat at 19-6-1 following a victory on Dec. 9 at San Jose. That was followed by a five-game losing streak and then a 10-game point streak that included nine wins.

The Wild’s up-and-down season appeared to become more stable as they went 3-3 over the next six games. But the Wild have won only once since Feb. 22 and that was a come-from-behind victory last week over a terrible Philadelphia club. The Wild’s inconsistency has become alarming and their special teams have been dreadful. In the past seven games, the Wild are 1-for-20 on the power play and have given up 10 power-plays goals on 23 penalty kills.

The hope that once existed for a deep playoff run has been replaced with doubt about this team’s ability to overcome regular-season adversity. The NHL playoffs are nothing but adversity, and yet Evason doesn’t seem all that bothered by his team’s mindset.

“All the good things that we do don’t seem to work out and the bad things become magnified,” said Sturm, who gave the Wild a 1-0 lead in the first period Sunday before Dallas scored the next four goals. “It’s like (we make) a little mistake and it just blows up. That’s just how it feels to me. I said in the first intermission, we can either feel sorry for ourselves, it might go on another three games like this or five games, I don’t know? Maybe next game our luck turns around.

“Dumbs said in the locker room, we just have to take a look in the mirror tonight and ask ourselves if that’s all we’ve got right now, or if we have to change something. Whatever it might be. If you need another hour of sleep everyday or take your vitamins, I don’t know what it is. Like Dumbs said, I like this group and it would be a shame if we keep going like this and we can’t stay together. If we keep going (like this), we all know something is going to happen.”

Sturm was referring to the NHL trade deadline on March 21. It was assumed a few months ago that Guerin might try to acquire a Top Six center. But the way the Wild are now playing, they also could use a big presence on the blue line and the most glaring need appears to be in goal.

Kaapo Kahkonen started for the second consecutive game on Sunday but was lifted in the second period after giving up a soft goal to Jason Robertson to make it 4-1. Veteran Cam Talbot, who also is struggling, finished the game and was sitting on the bench as the Stars scored two late goals into an empty net after Kirill Kaprizov had scored twice with the Wild skating 6-on-5.

Like Dumbs said, I like this group and it would be a shame if we keep going like this and we can’t stay together. — Nico Sturm

Will Guerin still make a move? One would have to think given how this team played earlier in the season he is going to do something to provide a spark. It would be a shame to just give up and let this once promising season go down the drain.

But privately Guerin and Evason have to be baffled by what’s happening. The Wild might not be as good as we thought — the team that had the third-best points percentage in the NHL on Valentine’s Day (.732) is now 13th in the same category (.620) — but Guerin and Evason were known as tough-minded players during their NHL careers and seeing this collection lose all confidence is alarming.

The Wild will play host to the Rangers on Tuesday before heading on a two-game trip and then returning home for nine in a row. That stretch will include Boston, Vegas, Vancouver, Colorado and Pittsburgh. If the Wild hasn’t rediscovered their mojo by that time, they likely won’t be playing any postseason games.

“I don’t want to say we’re panicked or scared to lose, but everybody realizes what’s going on and we’re grasping at something, trying to stop it and it’s not working out right now,” Sturm said. “I don’t really have the answers for you guys. I just know that it’s not for lack of effort.”

If that was meant to sound reassuring, it didn’t do the trick.

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“We loved how we responded,” Evason said Thursday. “It’s great to get seven goals, but we did it the right way. We played team-first. We weren’t extending our shifts. We weren’t individually trying to score. We were scoring the right way.”

Sixteen games into the season, the Wild (11-5-0) have played the right way more often than not. They’ve been in first place, or close to it, consistently in the Central Division. They’ve won 11 games, starting the year with a four-game winning streak before adding another four-gamer to start the month of November.

Seven of their first eight victories were considered comebacks, with thrilling sequences of last-minute, last-second goals in regulation to help the Wild to a perfect 4-0 overtime/shootout record. The Wild’s longest losing streak so far sits at two games, both 4-1 margins coming in their inaugural visit to Seattle and then in Colorado.

A lot of things have gone the Wild’s way so far this year. What’s really noticeable is the overall depth of the team. Perhaps no game was better evidence than the win over the Stars (6-7-2), which is also not too surprising in a game with seven goals for one team.

But it wasn’t like the Wild got a hat trick from Kirill Kaprizov, two goals from Kevin Fiala or even the majority of points from a dominant top line. No, the Wild celebrated seven different goal scorers on the ice, from rookies to veterans. All four lines produced scoring. Marcus Foligno was the only forward who didn’t register a point.

“We’re a great team all over,” said forward Mats Zuccarello. “Any line can score any game.”

Rem Pitlick, fresh off his natural hat trick Nov. 13 in Seattle, opened the scoring midway through the first period as he skated around the zone before elevating his shot from the top of the circles. Then Kaprizov made it 2-0 by the end of the first period with an easy open-net shot on the backdoor with a slick pass from Zuccarello.

That goal started a career-high, four-point night for Kaprizov, who added three assists by the time the night was over. None was more exciting to watch than his pass to Frederick Gaudreau who waited out in front of the net as Kaprizov was behind the net, facing the glass and spun a behind-the-back pass to his teammate for the 5-1 lead in the third period.

“You have to know that even though it doesn’t seem like he sees you, there’s good chances that he knows where you are,” Gaudreau said. “I just was ready on that (goal). … I was pretty sure he knew where I was.”

Kaprizov is the fourth Wild played in the past 15 years to record a four-point game at age 24 or younger, according to NHL Public Relations. Matt Dumba, Guillaume Latendresse and Pierre-Marc Bouchard were the others.

Evason shook up the lines for Thursday, putting Kaprizov on the third line with Gaudreau and reunited him with center Victor Rask. Kaprizov has been a target of some criticism from fans early this season for his lack of production in the goals column. He went goalless for the first eight games, though he still contributed assists.

Alex Goligoski’s three-point night helped lift the Wild over the Stars 7-2 on Nov. 18 (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

But after waiting all summer before signing his five-year, $45 million contract, it seemed to come with some superstar-like expectations from a fanbase that was dazzled by his play in his first (partial) NHL season last winter. He’s had a few rough games this season, sometimes not even being that noticeable. Tuesday against the Sharks, he had no points and was a minus-2. He still leads the team in points (15) and assists (11) after Thursday.

When he’s on his game, however, he’s one of the best and most fun players to watch.

“I just try to play hockey, just try to play my game and do the best I could every single night,” said Kaprizov, through an interpreter.

Kaprizov and Zuccarello were split up on the lines for the most part against the Stars. But they were reunited briefly following penalty kills and it worked out. Zuccarello praised Kaprizov’s overall effort and play, despite criticism that he’s not scoring enough.

“I think sometimes you have to see beyond the goals and assists and see what he creates and how hard he works for our team,” Zuccarello said.

Only a minute and 1 second into the second period, the Wild took a 3-0 lead on Ryan Hartman’s team-leading eighth goal of the season when he jammed home a rebound on Goligoski’s wrap-around attempt. Goligoski had quite the night facing his former team. When the Stars made it a 3-1 game in the third period, Goligoski responded a few minutes later with his first goal in a Wild sweater, a shot from the point through traffic.

Goligoski had a three-point night with his pair of assists. He’s feeling more comfortable with his new team this season.

“It can take a little while,” Goligoski said. “New team. You play for the same coach for the past four years, so it’s a little different system and just chemistry with guys, where to put pucks. Everyone’s different.

“I felt good.”

Zuccarello made it 6-2 only 29 seconds after a Jamie Benn goal cut into the deficit again. Then 45 seconds later, Rask, back in action after being scratched for four games found a bouncing puck in front for the Wild’s seventh goal of the game, a season-high.

Getting him back in the lineup, Evason was pleased with Rask’s effort and urgency.

“It’s great to get points, obviously,” Evason said. “And it’s great that we scored some goals. But we saw a lot of people play the right way. Rasky played with urgency, got up and down the ice, checked very well.”

What’s so encouraging about the good position the Wild have put themselves in, and the depth they possess is that there’s still plenty of potential for more production and more improvement. There’ll be room for that as the team heads out for a three-game road trip ahead of Thanksgiving, that unofficial benchmark where NHL teams inside the playoff picture at Turkey Day often make the postseason in the spring.  

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