Looking to take a three games to one lead in the Western Conference Quarterfinals, Lindy Ruff's Dallas Stars are in St. Paul on Wednesday night to take on John Torchetti's Minnesota Wild. Game time at the XCel Energy Center is 8:30 p.m. CDT. The game will be televised on Fox Sports Southwest and NBCSN.
To their credit, the injury riddled Wild put up quite a fight on Monday night after falling into a 2-0 deficit courtesy of a pair of Patrick Sharp goals. Minnesota held the Stars to just 17 shots for the game.
Buoyed by a Chris Porter goal in the final minute of the first period, the Wild went on to take a 3-2 lead by the end of the second period on goals by Erik Haula and Jason Pominville. The lead grew to 4-2 after a Mikko Koivu power play goal in the third period. Colton Sceviour got the Stars back within 4-3 with 6:15 left but the Stars could not find an equalizer. Pominville iced a 5-3 win for the Wild.
Winning goalie Devan Dubnyk stopped 14 of 17 shots. Kari Lehtonen stopped 20 of 24.
The Wild are still without Zach Parise and Thomas Vanek but Vanek participated in Wednesday's practice in Minnesota and Parise skated on his own before practice. Parise, believed to be dealing with back issues, has been upgraded from out indefinitely to "week-to-week" while Vanek has been upgraded from week-to-week to day-to-day.
Tyler Seguin, who is still less than 100 percent healed from the Achilles tendon injury he suffered in the stretch drive and sat out Monday's game, is also out for Game 4. He is back in Dallas. Defenseman Kris Russell (illness) is a game-day decision. The Stars have not named a goaltender for Game Four but there has been speculation that Antti Niemi will be in net.