The Wild won't know their lineup until after warmups ahead of a must-win Game 6 vs. Dallas on Friday night at Xcel Energy Center.
Wild won't know lineup for must-win Game 6 vs. Dallas Stars until after warm-ups
Ryan Hartman and Mats Zuccarello didn't practice on Thursday, taking maintenance days.
April 28, 2023 at 5:11PM
Ryan Hartman and Mats Zuccarello didn't practice Thursday (maintenance). Hartman skated Friday morning, but Zuccarello did not. Filip Gustavsson was the first goaltender off the ice, which suggests he'll make a fourth consecutive start.
"We think everyone's available," coach Dean Evason said. "But you never know, right?"
After falling behind 3-2 in a series, the Wild have forced a Game 7 four times in team history.
This most recently happened in 2021 in the first round vs. Vegas; before that, they persevered in 2014 in the first round against Colorado and then during the first (Colorado) and second (Vancouver) rounds in 2003 en route to the Western Conference finals vs. Anaheim.
In this best-of-seven, the Wild are down 3-2 after losing Games 4 and 5 to trail the Stars for the first time.
"For the most part, our group has handled adversity very well throughout this series," Evason said. "We haven't executed in some areas. We haven't probably got enough breaks and in different situations as far as breaks and calls and bounces and all of that kind of stuff. We're expecting us to work to provide those and to gain those breaks, not wait for them to happen.
"We'll expect them to happen here tonight because of the way we're going to play."
Projected lineup
Kirill Kaprizov-Ryan Hartman-Marcus Johansson
Matt Boldy-Frederick Gaudreau-Oskar Sundqvist
Gus Nyquist-Sam Steel-Marcus Foligno
Brandon Duhaime-Connor Dewar-Ryan Reaves
Jake Middleton-Jared Spurgeon
Jonas Brodin-Matt Dumba
John Klingberg-Brock Faber
Filip Gustavsson
Key numbers
4: Power-play goals for the Stars' Tyler Seguin.
5: Points in four games for Hartman.
11: Points in the series for Dallas' Roope Hintz.
.928: Save percentage for Gustavsson in Round 1.
23-11: Record for the Wild all-time in the playoffs when they score the first goal.
About the Stars
Road teams are 25-15 in these playoffs, those 25 victories the most through 40 games in a single postseason. Seguin's four power-play goals are the most by a Stars player in one series in franchise history. His four power-play tallies are also tied for the most in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Seguin's latest PP goal was the game-winner in Game 5, a 4-0 shutout for Dallas. That performance improved goaltender Jake Oettinger's career save percentage in the playoffs to .945.
The Wild have been the surprise of the league as their high-scoring winger makes a shambles of team scoring records.
