Antoine Roussel scored a peculiar goal, Kari Lehtonen made 25 saves, and the Dallas Stars defeated the Minnesota Wild 2-1 in Game 2 of the Western Conference First Round at American Airlines Center on Saturday. Dallas took a 2-0 lead in the best-of-7 series. Game 3 is at Xcel Energy Center on Monday.
Roussel gave the Stars a 1-0 lead 3:54 into the second period. While he was behind the net, the puck hit his skate and deflected into the air. It went over the back of the net, hit goalie Devan Dubnyk near his nameplate, and dropped over the goal line. The play was reviewed to see if the net was dislodged prior to the puck crossing the line, but the goal was upheld. Wild coach John Torchetti asked an official for an explanation immediately after the review was complete.
Jamie Benn scored his second goal of the series to give Dallas a 2-0 lead 10:23 into the third period. Cody Eakin sprung Benn with a pass off the boards from inside the Dallas zone. Benn received the puck inside the neutral zone before scoring on the breakaway with a backhand through Dubnyk's five-hole.
Scandella beat Lehtonen far post with a slap shot from the left point. It was Minnesota's second goal in 12 periods of play, dating to the regular season.
Minnesota outshot Dallas 8-4 in the third period. Lehtonen made a save on Mikko Koivu at close range with 27.1 seconds remaining and the Wild using an extra attacker. Minnesota got a power play when Patrick Eaves was called for cross checking with 4.4 seconds remaining, but Dallas won the faceoff and cleared the puck. Dallas won Game 1, 4-0 on Thursday. The Wild have 47 shots on Lehtonen through the two games, a bit fewer than Torchetti prefers. Marco Scandella scored the Wild's first goal of the series at 12:42 to make it 2-1.
Stars Quotes
Lindy Ruff: "I've seen some crazy [goals], I've seen some that are similar, but I don't think I've seen one that's gone to review where you don't whether it went in, where you don't know if the net's off, don't know if it was a high stick, you don't know whether it was kicked, so there were a lot of options there to go over."Antoine Roussel: "I wasn't sure it crossed the line. I had a feeling that I might get it reversed. [Dubnyk] just pushed off the net in those circumstances. That's good for us, and I was so happy. That was a big goal for us."
Kari Lehtonen: "It's a battle and you try to read where the guys are. At the end of the day, it's just a crazy battle and that was nice that we were able to keep them out."
Wild Quotes
John Torchetti: "I asked, 'What can I call here? We reviewed the kick, we reviewed the high stick, we reviewed the net and the whistle."
"Marco scored a goal for us on the power play. Now that'll get us turning the other way. No, we need more. You always need more if you have one goal in two games. We've got to get some more traffic and that's the No. 1 thing. They're doing a good job fronting and we've got to get pucks through them."
Jamie Benn: "[I] just caught a break. I don't even know what happened to their [defenseman], but [Eakin] made a great pass and I kind of got lucky with a bounce off my skate and off the boards, and just found a way to put it home."
Mikko Koivu: "Overall our game was a lot better, and that's a good sign. We came up short, but if we keep getting those kinds of chances, and we can create with putting pressure on their [defense], I believe it's a matter of time that we get rewarded too, and get some goals, and hopefully get the lead."
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