Dallas Stars vs Minnesota Wild Preview: High-Scoring Stars Favored Against Defensive-Minded Wild
40-Goal Scorers Kirill Kaprizov and Jason Robertson Will Lead Their Teams Into First Round Series
Division Rivals Minnesota and Dallas Set to Meet in the Playoffs For Second Time
Dallas Stars vs Minnesota Wild Preview: If the NHL regular season matchups are any indication, get ready for a long series when the Dallas Stars and Minnesota Wild begin their best-of-seven game series.
The teams have split their last eight meetings with two of four showdowns this season being decided by one goal so keep that in mind when looking at the Dallas Stars vs Minnesota Wild preview.
When looking at the series odds, the Stars winning in seven games is priced at +425 followed by Dallas taking the series in either four or five games at +450. Those are also the odds for the Wild to win in six. The last time the teams met in the playoffs, Dallas won 4-2 back in 2016.
Game 1 is Monday in Dallas with the series shifting to Minnesota in Games 3 and 4. Dallas is priced at -145 to win the opener, according to the NHL matchup predictions.
Dallas is tied for third among Western Conference teams with a +1400 price to win the Stanley Cup with Minnesota coming in at +2200.
Trying to Bury Previous Failures
Continuing Our Dallas Stars vs Minnesota Wild Preview: Minnesota hasn’t won a playoff series since 2015 when the Wild topped St. Louis in six games before being swept by the Chicago Blackhawks.
Since then the Wild has lost six straight opening-round series and won just 10 of the 33 games. Those numbers are hard to ignore when it comes to the Dallas Stars vs Minnesota Wild preview.
The Wild will be short-handed when the series starts with centers Joel Eriksson Ek and Mason Shaw out. Center Sam Steel is expected to be in the lineup while fellow forward Marcus Johansson and Oskar Sundqvist as well as defenseman John Klingberg, a longtime member of the Dallas Stars, are questionable.
When looking at the NHL team stats, Minnesota is sixth in goals against average since the start of March. Marc-Andre Fleury is a former Stanley Cup champion. However, Filip Gustavsson (2.10 goals against average, .937 save percentage) has had a better season.
Kirill Kaprizov, a 40-goal scorer, has played in just two of the last 17 games. There are reports that he has been practicing on the first line so he looks like he will be good to go.
In his absence, Matt Boldy emerged into an elite goal scorer with 15 goals in his last 20 games.
Some Unfinished Business
Just three years ago Dallas played in the Stanley Cup Final. Since losing in six games to the Tampa Bay Lightning, Dallas is 3-4 in the playoffs.
Many of the key players from that team are still around, including Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin, Roope Hintz and Joe Pavelski as well defensemen Miro Heiskanen and Esa Lindell. Keep that in mind when it comes to the Dallas Stars vs Minnesota Wild preview.
Two of the younger players could hold the key to the series as Jason Robertson leads the Stars with 46 goals and 109 points while 19-year-old Wyatt Johnston has three goals in his last two games. Robertson has 36 points and is +13 over his last 22 games. Only Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon and the Edmonton Oilers duo of Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid have more points during that stretch.
The only real injury issue of note is an illness slowing backup goalie Scott Wedgewood. However, this will be Jake Oettinger’s series between the pipes. Oettinger had a 1.87 GAA against Minnesota during the regular season.
Handicapping the Series
Concluding Our Dallas Stars vs Minnesota Wild Preview: Both teams head into the playoffs playing some pretty good hockey. Dallas is 16-5-1 since the beginning of March with Minnesota 12-4-5. The biggest difference between the teams during that stretch is that Dallas is converting on 31.1% of its power plays compared to just 15.4 for the Wild. Dallas should also have the edge when it comes to the faceoffs.
Dallas is 38-21-8 as the favorite and Minnesota is just 7-13-3 as the underdog during the regular season. The Wild has covered in 23 of its 41 road games with Dallas 18-23 against the spread at home.
Hintz led Dallas with four goals in the four games against Minnesota during the regular season. Kaprizov tied for Minnesota’s team lead with two goals against Dallas this season. However, he is also -4 in those games.
Kaprizov and Robertson both are priced at +375 to be the leading goal scorer in the series followed by Hintz (+600), Pavelski (+700) and Boldy (+900). The price is set at +275 for Kaprizov and Robertson to record the most points in the series.
Dallas has converted on just 16.7% on the power play in the four games with Minnesota while the Wild scored on 27.3% of the man-advantage situations.
It wasn’t through a lack of effort as Dallas was +5 in shots on goal and won 59% of the faceoffs. The team scoring first won each of the four meetings in the regular season.
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