Strange goals find Wild's Dubnyk and force him into offseason

At some point, if you're beaten by a fluky goal every game, it no longer can be considered a fluke.

Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk cannot get over the one or two goofy, funky goals a game that were scored against him not only in the Wild's first-round playoff series against the Stars but pretty much every game down the stretch of the series.

The one that occurred Sunday in Game 6 turned into the winning goal that ended the Wild's season.

"It makes you feel sick to have to lose a game and a series on a bouncer like that," Dubnyk said, referring to Dallas' fifth goal.

Defenseman Alex Goligoski's shot hit the Wild's Charlie Coyle, popped into the air, landed in the crease and was pushed in by the scrambling skates of Dubnyk. Dubnyk said because of the power of the shot, when he lost sight of the puck he figured it had to have gone into the corner.

Then he heard frantic yelling from teammates that the puck was in the crease.

"It seems like there was at least one every game," Dubnyk said.

Asked if there's anything he thinks he can do to limit these types of goals next season, Dubnyk said: "I don't know. It's crazy. You look at every goal. You try, but everything happens fast. Pucks hit sticks and bodies. Like on the [Goligoski winner], you can say I should stay down in front, but if that puck does land [to my left], then they shoot it from over there."

Dubnyk, incidentally, played all series with an injured right index finger on his blocker hand. It was injured in Game 1, and he received several painkilling injections. He refused X-rays, so he didn't know if it was broken, but he missed practice between Games 1 and 2.

He said the injury made it difficult to play the puck because of the pain.

Left winger Jason Zucker finished, in his words, his most "disappointing" season Sunday. After being on a 34-goal pace last season and scoring 21 times, Zucker, 24, scored 13 goals in 71 games this season and two goals and two assists in the final 31 regular-season games.

In the playoffs, Zucker scored no goals on only three shots and had two assists in six games. He was a minus-3 Sunday and somehow missed a tying goal before Goligoski's winner.

Zucker said the lack of goal scoring is "not a fluke." Asked what he has to do to get better this offseason, Zucker said: "A lot. Very disappointing."

Zucker is a restricted free agent, and interim coach John Torchetti insinuated he felt the contract year affected Zucker.

"He's got to have a way better year next year," Torchetti said. "We know he'll bounce back for us next year. He's still a great player. You've got to learn when not scoring, you've got to do other details of the game — faceoffs, blocked shots, hard on the wall, compete hard. Those are the intangibles."

• After Goligoski's goal, Torchetti asked Mikko Koivu on the bench if he should pull the goalie with around four minutes left. The captain told Torchetti, according to the coach, "Oh no, no, no. We're going to score. Relax." Koivu was right. Jason Pominville cut it to 5-4 with 4:47 left.