Wild Blog: Season Ends After Rally Comes Up Short
Sunday had all the makings of an electric atmosphere at Xcel Energy Center.
The Minnesota Wild won Game 5 against Dallas in overtime on Friday to send the series back to St. Paul, forcing a Game 6.
With Prince being remembered for his music before the game, fans were in a frenzy, hoping for a Wild win to force a Game 7 on Tuesday night.
Instead, Dallas jumped out to a 4-0 lead after two periods and it looked like the Stars would cruise to victory like they were driving a little red corvette.
Then, the Wild finally came to play in the third period.
Goals by Jared Spurgeon and Jonas Brodin 16 seconds apart put the Wild on the board, making it a 4-2 game. With "Let's Go Crazy" as the goal song for the game, Minnesota fans finally had something to cheer about.
When Jared Spurgeon scored his second power play goal at 8:39 of the third period to make it 4-3, Wild fans were delirious with excitement, dreaming of an improbable comeback. Kari Lehtonen was playing goal like he was wearing a raspberry beret, looking very shaky in net.
The next goal scored, however, is one Devan Dubnyk would like to have back.
On the face-off, Stars defenseman Alex Goligoski fired the shot on goal with the puck falling behind Dubnyk. A mad rush to the net caused Dubnyk to knock the puck in the goal, making the score 5-3 Stars.
"It's a tough time to get a bounce like that," Dubnyk said of that goal. "It doesn't feel right to lose on a goal like that but that's the way it is."
The Wild would rally to make it a one-goal game again when Jason Pominville found himself alone alongside the net, putting home a rebound past Lehtonen and making it a 5-4 game.
Just when you think things couldn't get any crazier at Xcel, controversy happened with 33.9 seconds to play in the game.
Minnesota looked like they might have tied the game with Nino Niederreiter putting the puck past Lehtonen during a scramble in front of the net. The officials reviewed the play and replay showed the puck starting to cross the goal line as Lehtonen had his pad on the back of the puck, keeping it out of the net.
After reviewing the replay, the officials deemed no goal was scored. For a goal to count in the NHL, the entire puck must cross the goal line. The replay never showed the entire puck crossing the goal line, thus ruling it inconclusive.
Dallas would hold on to win the game 5-4 and the series 4-2. After the game, there was a sense of pride in the Wild locker room for fighting back to make a game of it but also disappointment for not finishing the job.
"The way the guys battled in here is huge of us," Spurgeon said after the game. "We could have just sat back and let it be a 4-0 game but we clawed our way back. We can take some positives out of that but it would have been great to equalize there."
"I feel like we should still be playing," Ryan Suter said after the loss. "The way that third period ended I thought that just one more minute and we could keep going. If you can score four goals in a period you usually can win the game."
With the series win, the Dallas Stars move along to the next round, keeping their season alive as they try to win their first Stanley Cup since 1999.
As for the Minnesota Wild, this loss brings an end to a frustrating season. It was one that saw inconsistent play throughout the year, leaving fans screaming like when doves cry.
Where the Wild goes from here remains to be seen as there is much work to do this offseason. It's something owner Craig Leipold and General Manager Chuck Fletcher will have to ponder as they leave Xcel Energy Center to drive home in the purple rain.
That's just a sign o' the times in the State of Hockey.
