The Minnesota Wild may have lost the battle on Thursday night against the Dallas Stars, but they took a major step toward winning the playoff war.
Minnesota blew a 3-1 lead to lose 5-4, dropping four points behind Dallas with three games left. There's still a mathematical chance they can wrestle home-ice advantage away, but the Wild are likely looking at a road series next week in the first round of the playoffs.
If Thursday's game was any indication, the Wild are hardly afraid of needing to play most of their games in Dallas. The math doesn't really bode well for Minnesota; there are six possible points left and the Wild trail the Stars by four plus a tiebreaker. That means Minnesota needs to win out and have the Stars lose twice in order to take home-ice into the playoffs, but the way the team played in Dallas on Thursday indicates that it might not need that advantage as much as it might seem.
Can the Wild still catch the Stars after losing 5-4 on Thursday night?
Here's how things stack up with three games left for both the Wild and Stars.
Seed | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|
Central Division | ||
No. 1 | Colorado Avalanche | 114 points |
No. 2 | Dallas Stars | 106 points |
No. 3 | Minnesota Wild | 102 points |
Pacific Division | 90 points | |
No. 4 | Edmonton Oilers | 90 points |
No. 5 | Anaheim Ducks | 89 points |
No. 6 | Vegas Golden Knights | 88 points |
Wild Card | ||
No. 7 | Utah Mammoth | 90 points |
No. 8 | Nashville Predators | 84 points |
LA Kings | 83 points | |
Winnipeg Jets | 82 points | |
San Jose Sharks | 81 points |
If things hold, here's what the first-round matchups would look like:
- (1) Colorado Avalanche vs. (8) Nashville Predators
- (2) Dallas Stars vs. (3) Minnesota Wild
- (4) Edmonton Oilers vs. (7) Utah Mammoth
- (5) Anaheim Ducks vs. (6) Vegas Golden Knights
None of this really matters -- or is terribly surprising -- for Wild fans, who have known who their first-round matchup will be for some time now. Thursday's game was technically about home-ice advantage but it was really about sending a message. That became abundantly clear right away hen things got physical on both sides in the first period and the rest of the game was spent seeing who could rough up the other team more.
Things ended with both Quinn Hughes and Matt Boldy getting essentially ejected -- both getting two-minute minors with 14.8 seconds left -- which felt less about the game at hand and more about the matchup ahead. Minnesota sent a clear message to Dallas that this looming playoff series is going to be a heavyweight fight and Thursday was the weigh-in, and it seemed like Minnesota measured up.
We'll see if that translates to next week but home-ice is still up for grabs. Dallas narrowed its magic number to clinch the advantage with the win but Minnesota let it be known that its hardly afraid to go on the road and won't back down from what will surely be one of the best fights of the entire playoffs.