NHL - Playoffs - Dallas Stars @ Minnesota Wild 3-5 - Monday, April 18, 2016 - Game 3

After losing the first two games in their Western Conference First Round series and trailing by two goals less than five minutes into Game 3 against the Dallas Stars, the Minnesota Wild had nothing to lose. Facing a potential win-or-go-home situation in Game 4, the Wild had for four unanswered goals in a 5-3 win on Monday. Dallas leads the best-of-7 series 2-1. Game 4 is at Xcel Energy Center on Wednesday. Stars forward Patrick Sharp scored 26 seconds in, and then made it 2-0 less than four minutes later. Minnesota, which scored a total of one goal in Games 1 and 2 in Dallas, was determined to get back in the series.
The strategy worked. Slowly, shift by shift, the Wild won more puck battles, the game moved to their offensive end, and for the first time in the series, Minnesota routinely challenged Dallas goaltender Kari Lehtonen. Chris Porter's goal with 50 seconds remaining in the first period was a turning point. Haula wheeled around at the point and saw Porter tapping his stick on the ice. He sent a pass toward the right circle and Porter got hit stick on it, deflecting past Lehtonen.
Haula and Jason Pominville followed with goals in the second and Mikko Koivu capped the run early in the third when Minnesota won a Stanley Cup Playoff game when trailing by multiple goals for the second time in franchise history.
The Wild won for the sixth time this season when allowing the first goal (6-27-6). The victory also ended a seven-game losing streak dating to the regular season. Dallas was outshot for the first time in the series (25-17), outhit (20-18), had fewer blocks (24-17), lost in the faceoff circle (51 percent to 49 percent) and lost the special teams battle. After the first half of the first period, the Stars didn't threaten until the final half of the third period.
Wild goaltender Devan Dubnyk made 14 saves; Lehtonen finished with 20 saves. Sharp's goal in the opening minute came after a turnover along the left half-wall. Stars defenseman Alex Goligoski intercepted the puck and sent it toward Sharp on the doorstep, who stuck his stick blade out for a tip. Sharp scored his second of the game at 4:10, flying in down the left hand side and beating Dubnyk with a snap shot glove side. It was his ninth goal and 17th point in 18 career playoff games against the Wild.
Porter's goal gave the Wild life into the first intermission and Minnesota came out rolling in the second, putting the first five shots on goal. Haula tied it at 6:04, tipping a Pominville shot near the goalmouth.
Pominville scored in the final minute of the third, finishing off a rebound of a Nino Niederreiter shot from in tight at 19:13. Niederreiter had two assists.
Koivu's goal came on the power play at 6:26 of the third when he poked in a loose puck in the crease. Dallas got within one at 6:15 on Colton Sceviour's goal that deflected in off his chest to make it 4-3. The Stars got Lehtonen to the bench with 1:35 remaining in regulation, but Pominville scored from center ice into an empty net 20 seconds later.

Stars Quotes

Lindy Ruff: "We didn't play near as well as we needed to play. That's probably as bad as I've seen us play in maybe five weeks. When you look at some of the one-on-one battles that we lost, you lose enough of those, you're going to lose a big battle, too."

Wild Quotes

Erik Haula: "We threw the kitchen sink at them."
Chris Porter: "I was just letting him know that I was open. I just kind of gripped the stick and swung it like a golf club and fortunate for me it did find the back. We did build some momentum after that."
Jason Pominville: "We don't make it easy on ourselves. We have a history of that. We've got to dig ourselves out of holes but for the most part we've responded pretty well, first to get into the postseason, second to respond the way we did tonight."
John Torchetti: "It's only a two-game losing streak for me in the playoffs, that was the number one thing. It's one-two, now we have to come out, get a good effort, not worrying about what happened before. That was a big response for our fans. They deserved that type of play, and we want to come out again, and if they come out and support us like that, we want to give them a hard game again."
Jamie Benn: "They were riding high off a couple goals and the fans got pretty excited. We're going to see a lot of that on the road here and we've got to be prepared to be in these situations and find a way to slow down their momentum."

Other Results

Washington @ Philadelphia 6-1 - Caps Lead Series 3-0
Alex Ovechkin had two goals and an assist, and the Washington Capitals defeated the Philadelphia Flyers 6-1 in Game 3 of their Eastern Conference First Round series at Wells Fargo Center on Monday. The Capitals scored five power-play goals, the most in their history in a Stanley Cup Playoff game. They were 5-for-9 and are 8-for-17 with the man-advantage in the series. The Capitals lead the best-of-7 series 3-0. Game 4 will be in Philadelphia on Wednesday.

It's the first time the Capitals have led a series 3-0; they lost in Game 3 the seven previous times they went up 2-0. Carlson had a goal and two assists, and Marcus Johansson, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Jay Beagle scored for the Capitals. Braden Holtby made 31 saves and had an assist. Washington defenseman Brooks Orpik left the game with 8:01 left in the second period because of an upper-body injury after being hit into the boards by Philadelphia forward Ryan White. Trotz said Orpik would be re-evaluated Tuesday. Michael Raffl scored for Philadelphia, and Steve Mason made 21 saves. The Flyers went 0-for-5 on the power play; they are 0-for-13 in the series. Ovechkin's goal at 8:50 of the second period was the game-winner, but Kuznetsov's goal 1:58 into the third was the difference-maker. Justin Williams' shot from the right side of the Flyers zone bounced off the glass to Mason, but the puck fell out of his glove.

Kuznetsov pounced on it, made a quick deke and scored. The Flyers also felt it was a key moment in the game, one from which they were unable to recover.
The Capitals scored three more power-play goals after Kuznetsov's, including Ovechkin's second of the night and third of the series at 14:58 of the third.
Ovechkin has 74 points in 75 career NHL postseason games, the most in Capitals history. Dale Hunter had 72. Ovechkin said he is more pleased by how Washington is playing. The Flyers held a pregame ceremony to honor founding owner and chairman Ed Snider, who died April 11. Game 3 was Philadelphia's first home game since his death. After a video celebrating Snider's life and a moment of silence, anthemist Lauren Hart sang "God Bless America" with a video of Kate Smith singing from the 1970s. Hart was wearing a No. 67 Flyers jersey with Snider's name on the back. The Flyers took their first lead of the series 57 seconds into the game when Raffl cut through the slot, stopped a Brandon Manning shot with his skate, held off Orpik and shot the puck under Holtby. But the Capitals responded at 4:43 of the first when Johansson tipped a Carlson shot past Mason for a power-play goal.