For the first time in over a decade the Minnesota Wild are heading to the second round of the NHL Playoffs.
It's a statement that not many in the State of Hockey were prepared to hear but it's reality after the Wild erased Dallas from the playoffs with a dominating win in Game 6. Minnesota's reward is a trip to Colorado for a series against the Avalanche -- the best team in the league -- but right now all that matters is that they got there to begin with.
Not only did the Wild finally win a playoff series, they did it in the best possible way that made it even sweeter than it already would have been.
JAMIE BENN WITH THE GIVEAWAY AND MATT BOLDY WITH THE EMPTY NET DAGGER!!! 🚨🚨🚨 pic.twitter.com/wIVTz3W6hh
— Gino Hard (@GinoHard_) May 1, 2026
The last time the Wild won a playoff series it was over the St. Louis Blues, a team that's certainly a rival but not one that could be defined as "heated". This time around the Wild bounced the Stars, a team that everyone in Minnesota love to hate and couldn't have gotten more satisfaction out of beating if they tried.
It goes beyond the race at the end of the season for who would get the No. 2 seed, this runs back to the bad blood that still exists -- and will forever exsist -- over the theft of the North Stars back in 1994. That's a wound that will never fully heal, and was opened back up by the Stars openly citing the move to Dallas in their hype video for the series against the Wild.
That's the basis for the hate, but these two teams don't need any extra motivation to dislike each other on the ice. Fans in Minnesota are still bitter over Ryan Suter's cheap shot crosscheck on Kirill Kaprizov a few years ago and the animosity was seen on full display all series long with how physical things got.
Mats Zuccarello and Yakov Trenin getting taken out early in the series made things feel like they might go the way we've seen before, but the Wild bounced back in a style that suggests this is a brand new era.
Where the Wild might have ope'd out of the Stars' way thanks to injuries tilting the momentum, Minnesota battled back and powered its way to three straight wins to close the series out. Things started with a 6-1 destruction of Dallas in Game 1 and ended with a pair of empty netters in a 5-2 win in Game 2.
That's the sort of domination we're not used to seeing out the Wild and it gives everyone reason to believe this run won't peak with this series win over the Stars.
Plenty of things need to be worked on but everything the Wild invested in setting up a moment like this paid off. Not trading Jesper Wallstedt resulted in one of the best series a rookie goalie has ever had; Quinn Hughes scored two huge goals in the Game 6 win and was a force all over the ice the entire series; Michael McCarron came through in the clutch when nobody expected him to with big hits and a few major goals.
It wasn't a smooth ride but nothing is when it comes to playoff hockey. What usually never happens is the Wild finding this sort of success, and having it happen against a rival as hated as the Stars makes Minnesota's first series victory in over a decade taste even sweeter.
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