Wild didn't surprise Dallas coach by starting Marc-Andre Fleury in goal

The Wild didn't stick with their winning goaltender from Game 1 in Game 2, subbing in Marc-Andre Fleury for Filip Gustavsson, but the switcheroo didn't catch the Stars off-guard.

"They've been pretty transparent in their conversations even with the media that they were going to play both guys, so we were ready for either guy [in Game 2]," Dallas coach Pete DeBoer said after the Stars ran away from the Wild 7-3 on Wednesday night at American Airlines Center to even the best-of-seven series at 1-1. "We obviously know Flower, but both those goalies have been a big part of why that team is where they are right now during the season. They've both been excellent, so I'm not surprised and I wouldn't be surprised to see [Fleury] again."

Like they did throughout the regular season, the Wild alternated between goalies to start this first-round series and Fleury learned on Tuesday he'd be getting the nod for Game 2. Earlier that day, at 1 a.m., the Wild had shrugged off the Stars 3-2 in double overtime, Gustavsson finishing with the most saves ever in a Wild playoff game at 51.

"They said we'd probably both play at some point," Fleury said. "Gus had a long game. He played excellent that last game, obviously, and it was a long one. I wish I could have stepped up and give him a break and give him the win to keep going here."

Wild coach Dean Evason said both netminders earned the net, and he made it clear the Game 2 loss was not on Fleury.

"Go back and watch all the goals and tell me which one you want Marc-Andre Fleury to stop," Evason added on Thursday. "It's two breakaways. It's three power play or penalty kill goals. It's a 3-on-2 that he makes an incredible save that it bounces.

"Listen, it wasn't one person that allowed the goals to be scored on us [Wednesday] night. It was the Minnesota Wild."

The seven goals are the most surrendered by the Wild in a postseason game, and Fleury called that output against him "embarrassing," explaining that he didn't make any "good key saves" during the game.

"Me and Gus are partners," Fleury said. "I don't feel like I play against him. He was tremendous and awesome that last game, and I just wanted to do my part, my job [in Game 2] and keep the team rolling and start a winning streak, and I didn't."

DeBoer pointed out that the Wild are the sixth-most penalized team in the NHL, saying, "We're ready for that."

Evason acknowledged the Wild are committing too many penalties and mentioned there will be adjustments to the penalty kill (6-for-11) but felt Dallas "had some bigger people probably go down pretty easy" in Game 2.

"You want to draw penalties because of how hard you're working and how gritty you are," Evason said. "But our superstar player in Kirill [Kaprizov], he takes a lot of abuse. Probably doesn't go down very often. Probably got hurt because of it, but we don't do that. That's just not what we do."

Oskar Sundqvist made his Wild playoffs debut in Game 2, but he isn't a newcomer to the postseason.

The forward won the Stanley Cup with St. Louis in 2019 and scored a quintessential playoff goal in the first period Wednesday by crashing the net and deflecting a puck in off his skate.

"Just trying to get more traffic on him," Sundqvist said, referring to Stars goalie Jake Oettinger. "He's stopping a lot of the first shots. We need to get traffic and bang in some rebounds."

Evason said the Wild likely won't have clarity on their injury situation until after the team's morning skate on Friday ahead of Game 3 at Xcel Energy Center.

Ryan Hartman missed Game 2 after scoring in double overtime in the opener, while Joel Eriksson Ek and John Klingberg have yet to appear in the series. All three are dealing with lower-body injuries.

Dallas' Joe Pavelski (concussion protocol) did not make the trip to Minnesota.